True, we’ve seen plenty of spectacular recoveries before in NASCAR, but very few where the car ended up getting as sideways as this Toyota did here at the Indianapolis Speedway.
The reason why at one point, this Toyota Stock Car looks a little like Godzilla emerging from a huge smoke cloud is because 20-year old driver Erik Jones knew he had to use all of the throttle in order to keep the car from sliding into the wall.
If you look closely at the slow-motion footage, you’ll notice Jones started turning his front wheels left only for a split second before turning them right towards the wall and giving it full gas, almost anticipating the full extent of the slide.
Kyle Busch also did the same in Kentucky a couple weeks back, only his Camry didn’t drift as much and none of his tires had given out. Busch simply had to correct a slide initiated because the track was getting a bit slippery due to the rain.
Recovering the car after you lose traction is one thing, but doing so after one of your tires has suffered catastrophic failure is a lot more demanding, so kudos to Mr Jones.