Crew member OK after Goodyear tire explodes
Mason Jennings, a tire specialist on the No. 27 team for Paul Menard was examining a tire behind the pit road wall after a Paul Menard pit stop when the incident went down. On the NASCAR TV broadcast the incident was described as a tire exploding while it was being examined for wear following the stop.
Jennings was sent to the infield care center following the incident. According to a release from RCR, Jennings experienced some ringing in his ears but overall he was fine.
In the aftermath of the situation, Goodyear has come to out to clarify that the tire didn’t explode and that it was more or less a fluke occurrence. According to an article via NBC Sports, Goodyear states that the tire did not explode as it was already down.
When a car spins it generally flat spots the tires, which is exactly what happened here. It flat spotted both front (tires). The damage that was done to the left front as he drove around the race track looked like it partially unseated the inner liner. So it was actually the inner liner that let go on pit road. It wasn’t the tire itself. The tire was already down.
Goodyear was quick to comment on the situation as the last thing that they want is people talking about their tires exploding on pit road.
Nevertheless, the situation had to a scary one for Jennings when the tire did whatever it did and created a sound that was audible up and down pit road. Luckily for Jennings the only ill effect was the ringing of his ears and nothing else came of the situation. Fox Sports