INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Underestimating the importance of hood pins in NASCAR should never be considered.
Just ask Denny Hamlin.
After turning the fastest lap in Fridays first practice session at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Sunday’s Crown Royal presents the Jeff Kyle 400, the second session was anything but smooth.
Minutes into the second of three practice sessions at the 2.5-mile speedway, Hamlin’s hood flew off his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on his first lap.
The hood did extensive damage to the car, shattering his windshield and blowing the roof apart. The hood also disintegrated upon impact allowing Hamlin to still see as he drove around the track and back to the Sprint Cup Series garage.
“The speeds we were going, when that hood comes up, it just disintegrates and blows,” said Hamlin. “The good thing is it didn’t all stay together. The hood blew apart so much that I had a gap in there that I could see.”
Hamlin who enters Sunday’s race locked in the Chase for the Sprint Cup wasn’t exactly certain how the hood came off, but he had a pretty good intuition.
“(The four hood pins) were probably hanging, I would say,” said Hamlin. “It wasn’t on TV, so I’m just assuming they were probably out.”
Luckily for the Chesterfield, Virginia native, the team did not have to revert to a backup car and later returned to the track after repairs were complete. Hamlin was 12th fastest overall with a lap of 179.968 miles per hour, significantly slower than his speed of 182.208 miles per hour turned earlier Friday.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
