VIDEO: Kurt Busch hits wall hard in Texas practice
Tires were a major concern heading to Texas Motor Speedway this week and Martinsville winner Kurt Busch was the first driver to feel the sting of a tire failure during Friday night's practice.
With about 10 minutes left in the one-hour, 50-minute practice session, Busch's No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet was heading down the backstretch when the left-rear tire failed, sending Busch nose-first into the wall at the entrance to Turn 3. The incident occurred when Busch was on the 19th lap with that set of tires.
Busch, who was fifth-fastest in practice at the time of his accident, will go to a backup car for Sunday's Duck Commander 500.
After the incident, Goodyear issued the following statement:
"Late in the Sprint Cup practice the No. 41 car lost a left-rear tire after 19 laps of a run. We eventually got the tire back, and while it was heavily damaged, our initial assessment is air loss due to over-deflection in the sidewall area. We've spoken to the team and got some preliminary information, but we need to talk with them further to get more details to help make a final determination," said Greg Stucker, Goodyear's director of race tire sales.
