In the first round of Top Fuel Eliminator at the NHRA O'Reilly Spring Nationals at Houston Raceway Park, Urs Erbacher raced against Larry Dixon in Alan Johnson's Al-Anabi dragster. At about 900 feet, Erbacher's Fueler suddenly exploded. Hundreds of parts came off the car and flew in all directions as Erbacher did an amazing job of controlling the car to avoid the retaining wall and Dixon in the other lane.
The engine was split apart in several areas, and the chassis was heavily damaged when the left rear slick exploded after being cut by engine debris while the car was still traveling at nearly 300 mph. The photos show the exploding slick cutting about 1 foot of the left edge of the wing off. When this happened in the past, the cars often crashed because the entire dynamics of the car changed and made it uncontrollable. The fact that Erbacher didn't crash the car is a testament to his driving ability.