Vinnie Deceglie admitted before he had the opportunity to react to his errant Pro Stocker, he was already on his roof. In almost a carbon copy of Gordie Rivera’s Friday afternoon crash, Deceglie lost control at about the 1,000 foot mark, the car flipped over on its roof and slid to a halt in the shutdown area in flames.

“It just happened so fast,” said Deceglie, who extracted himself from the car in the midst of the engine fire. “I didn’t even know what was going on.”

For Deceglie, this particular run was no different from the average run until he reached the 1,000 foot mark.

Vinnie Deceglie admitted before he had the opportunity to react to his errant Pro Stocker, he was already on his roof. In almost a carbon copy of Gordie Rivera’s Friday afternoon crash, Deceglie lost control at about the 1,000 foot mark, the car flipped over on its roof and slid to a halt in the shutdown area in flames.

“It just happened so fast,” said Deceglie, who extracted himself from the car in the midst of the engine fire. “I didn’t even know what was going on.”

For Deceglie, this particular run was no different from the average run until he reached the 1,000 foot mark.

“I left the starting line and everything was good, then I plugged it into fifth gear and right about 1,000 feet the back end picked up and I was on my roof. I went sliding and I think it hit the wall on both lanes. It just kept sliding and sliding. I think it was something with the track.”

Rickie Jones, in the first car to run following Deceglie’s crash, pulled his chute early. Ironically, RJ Race cars, owned by the Jones family, built Deceglie’s car.

“I was going okay in first, second and third, and I put it in fourth and it just started spinning,” Jones recalled. “it was moving around and I just tried to work the wheel back into the groove … pulled it into high and the back-end wanted to turn sideways real quick. I shoved the clutch in and pulled the parachutes. If I had stayed in it something bad could have happened.”

“It’s really, really loose – spinning,” added Mike Edwards, who made the quickest run in the left lane with a 6.625. “The car never really settled down for me and that’s not a good feeling at all. There were too many good cars that had too many problems. I hate to blame the track but there’s obviously something going on.”

Following Deceglie’s accident and Jones’ run, the NHRA Safety Safari inspected the trouble area, applied more glue and with the approval of at least two Pro Stock crew chiefs resumed the qualifying session.

“Something seems to be unloading some of the cars,” explained Graham Light, when asked what could be causing the problems just shy of the finish line. “They [drivers] were looking at their computer graphs trying to detect where it was happening and if there’s a common thread.”

The NHRA’s tech department met with various chassis builders following the qualifying session to inquire whether adjustments to the cars could be made to create additional downforce on the cars.

“We are looking into the possibility of putting more [rear] wing into the cars, or maybe some wicker,” Light said.

The NHRA doesn’t plan to prep the track any different for tomorrow’s competition.

“I don’t know what we can do,” Light said. “We had all of our people down there, the racers were down there, it’s sticky … it feels good, and it looks good.”

The prognosis for Deceglie’s Dodge Avenger remains uncertain until the Joneses can transport his car back to their Galesburg, Ind., shop for further inspection. If the car is beyond repair, the soonest he can have a new car built is 10 – 12 weeks.

CRASH PHOTO SEQUENCE