Eric Goodale’s wrecked Whelen Modified Tour car is brought back to the pits at New Hampshire Motor Speedway Friday after a hard practice crash
LOUDON, N.H. – The first NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour practice of the day Friday at New Hampshire Motor Speeday came to an end about five minutes before expected after a hard crash in turns one and two involving Eric Goodale.
Goodale’s car got into the wall hard in the corner, so hard that his right front tire sheered off the car and got over the fence and into the spectator area.
There were no fans in the area of where the tire came down and nobody was hurt. Goodale, of Riverhead, N.Y. walked away from the crash.
“It was a pretty good lick,” Goodale said. “One of the hardest I’ve taken in a while. But I hit on the SAFER Barrier part. I thought it was going to be a lot harder than it was when I knew I was going to hit the wall. I feel good, feel fine. Thank god they have the SAFER Barrier up.”
Goodale said all seemed fine with the car on track until his entry into turn one when his left front tire went immediately flat.
“I was just trying to get a feel for the car in the draft,” Goodale said. “I just went down there into turn one and as soon as I turned in the left front [tire] went down. I tried to [slow] the car up and turn left as hard as I could to keep it from nosing into the fence hard. I just couldn’t keep it out of the fence once I got up out of the groove.
“I was just about to come on the radio and say the [the car] feels really good. We were a little bit free but in [turns] three and four just before it happened the car turned everything. Everything felt good. The first indication was instantaneous. It wasn’t like it was going down a little bit at a time. It just totally went out all at the same time.”
Goodale was practicing in the car his team had designated to run in today’s Whelen All-Star Shootout exhibition at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. His primary car was reserved to run tomorrow’s Sunoco 100 points event.
Goodale is coming off his first career Whelen Modified Tour victory in the division’s last event, June 28 at Riverhead (N.Y.) Raceway. He comes into the weekend eighth in the Whelen Modified Tour standings. Immediately following the wreck he said he was unsure what the team would do as it relates to running the shootout event.
“I have no idea,” Goodale said. “Obviously we’re in it for the points, not the shootout. We’ll have to evaluate what we’re going to do.”
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