Filed under: Motorsports
Penske Racing transporter goes up in flames en route to Infineon
Penske's Indy racing team suffered disaster early this morning when their transporter truck – en route from the team's headquarters in Mooresville, North Carolina, to Sonoma, California – caught fire at 4 a.m. on Interstate 80 outside Cheyenne, Wyoming. The two Penske personnel on board managed to escape unharmed, but could not extinguish the fire, believed to have been caused by a faulty bearing in one of the trailer's wheels. They detached the truck cab from the burning trailer and could do nothing more but watch as an estimated $2 million worth of equipment – including two Dallara-Honda race cars – went up in flames.
The truck was bringing the cars and other necessary equipment to the Infineon Raceway at Sears Point for this weekend's race, where Penske's Helio Castroneves hopes to close the 78-point gap on rival Scott Dixon in the third to last race of the season. However Castroneves' car was completely destroyed by the fire, along with that of team-mate Ryan Briscoe. Fortunately the team already has two test cars at the track where they were practicing earlier this week, which will now be converted to race duty. The team has also dispatched another transporter truck from North Carolina carrying two additional cars – useable only for spare parts as they're already set up for the oval-track race in Chicago – along with additional personnel and equipment, which will pick up the two stranded staffers in Wyoming and drop off four more to sift through the wreckage.
Penske has a history of turning adverse circumstances into victory, having won at Kansas Speedway in 2006 shortly after the team's headquarters were decimated in a flood. At the 1987 Indianapolis 500, the team had to replace injured driver Danny Ongais with Al Unser Sr, and ditched its own car in favor of a retired March chassis that was sitting on display in a hotel lobby, which Unser drove to victory at the Brickyard. By the end of the weekend we'll know if Penske's penchant for overcoming disaster will carry through at Sears Point.
[Sources: Indianapolis Star and GrandPrix.com, photo courtesy of Penske Racing/IMS Photo]
_opt_thumbnail.jpg)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Zane 11:01AM (8/21/2008)
Sabotage?
Reply
Slliim 11:06AM (8/21/2008)
Awwwwww Mannnnn!!! That sucks for Penske racing, that will put a damper on their racing season. Here's to a speedy recovery...
~ Slim ~
Reply
azzo45 11:33AM (8/21/2008)
The cars they lost were speedway, oval spec Dallaras... the road course spec cars were already near Infinion
Still sucks they lost equipment... especially with Helio 2nd in the IRL Championship.
adrenalnjunky 2:14PM (8/21/2008)
source? The 3 articles I've red on it states the burned cars are the Infineon cars, the 2 more they're sending as backups/parts cars are the oval cars. The 2 testing cars they already had there are going to become the race spec cars for this race.
azzo45 6:40PM (8/21/2008)
I've read news reports & it was on ESPN news? Also this nugget from SPEEDtv.com & Robin Miller:
"They were oval-track cars we were preparing so we'll have to turn them around and just deal with it. We tested last week with Helio's backup car so we've got that and we'll be scrambling for a few days." (quoting Tim Cindric from Penske Racing)
Slliim 11:09AM (8/21/2008)
I doubt it's sabotage. It started from an overheated wheel bearing.
~ Slim ~
Reply
kfj 11:09AM (8/21/2008)
The same thing happened to a Grand Am team this year. I dont recall what cause the fire on their transporter but they also lost everything. That has to suck.
Reply
Los 12:26PM (8/21/2008)
Yes but who overheated the wheel bearing? J/K
Also, isn't it somewhat ironic that a truck containing vehicles that will run at very high speeds reliably and in relative safety burned up because of a faulty ball bearing and traveling relatively slowly in comparison?
2007RC46SP2 11:10AM (8/21/2008)
thats what insurance is for.
Reply
azzo45 11:37AM (8/21/2008)
Insurance pays Penske back for his loss... doesn't make Dallara deliver two race ready chassis in time for the season ending oval race.
Dixon & Target Ganassi Racing just got more "insurance" for clinching this year's IRL Championship.
Jruhi4 11:15AM (8/21/2008)
Is this an unfortunate new trend? In Grand Am Daytona Prototype racing the SunTrust Pontiac team also had a transporter fire in May en route between Laguna Seca and Watkins Glen.
Reply
RedLineTire 11:47AM (8/21/2008)
Strange. They used to put fire suppression systems on most transporters. Guess they stopped doing that?
Reply
Brad 11:52AM (8/21/2008)
Maybe they should outfit their trucks with fire suppression, like the cars.
Reply
Sparky57 11:53AM (8/21/2008)
I'm thinking infared heat sensors on all the trailers from now on.
Reply
jack94086 12:16PM (8/21/2008)
Yup,
Small wheels, small tires, small brakes, no ventilation, heavy loaded to the max, high speed and no time to get there, two prima donas truck drivers and you got a race truck going down the road...Lets see the log book......
and there isn't much on I-80 in Wyoming...
Try it in the winter, it's gourgeous.....
Reply
azzo45 12:26PM (8/21/2008)
Prima-donna TRUCK drivers??? Why pi$$ on the two drivers? Just because their cargo is much more expensive / exotic than "regular" truckers' payloads??
They were in bum-f*ck Wyoming... & had no cell service!!! How many truck drivers do you know that dress like fire fighters??
Blame the victims because they didn't throw on their red capes & pound on the "S" on their chests to extinguish the fire??? PLEASE!!!
Vroom Girl 2:22PM (8/21/2008)
Man.
I feel sorry for those guys, although we can be very glad they weren't hurt.
Reply
BMWdownshift 2:40PM (8/21/2008)
Fernando Alonso did it
Reply
BMWdownshift 2:40PM (8/21/2008)
Fernando Alonso did it!
Reply