Marco Andretti's Entire Rear Axle Simply Fell Off Of His Truck At Circuit Of The Americas
I feel like I watch a lot of racing. NASCAR Cup Series, Xfinity Series, Craftsman Truck Series, IndyCar, and F1.
…also some IMSA, WEC, F2, F3, and F1 Academy, and occasionally some Super Formula if I can find it.
However, I can't recall a time an entire rear axle simply fell out of a car — and not because of a crash — the way it did to Marco Andretti on Saturday.
The Cup Series, Xfinity Series, and Truck Series are all at Circuit Of The Americas this weekend for some road-racing fun, and the first series to go was the Truck Series.
As is the case with a lot of NASCAR road races, there were some one-off ringers in the field, and that included former IndyCar driver Andretti. He's made a few NASCAR starts over the years.
Andretti hit the brakes at COTA's Turn 11, a pretty heavy braking zone into a hairpin that leads into the longest, fastest straight on the circuit.
But none of that matters because the rear-end housing appeared to simply drop out of Andretti's Chevrolet, leaving him stranded and out of the race.
That is obviously, completely bizarre.
Even more than bizarre, it's concerning, because, as I'm sure you know, it's a safety concern.
NASCAR announced after the race that it will take all the pieces that came off of Andretti's truck back to its R&D Center to get to the bottom of it.
As I mentioned, that's a heavy braking zone, but not even the heaviest on the entire track. That's a problem.
The only thing I can recall that was even remotely like this was a crash former F1 and current Formula E driver Sebastien Buemi had while driving for Toro Rosso (now RB) during practice ahead of the 2010 Chinese Grand Prix.
Just like Andretti, Buemi was headed into a heavy braking zone, and when he applied the brakes, both front wheels simply exploded off of his car.
Just wild. Hopefully, they get to the bottom of it so it doesn't happen again.
Andretti finished the race in 31 after retiring with suspension issues… to put it mildly.