Graveyard Ghosts: Juan Pablo Montoya’s No. 42 “Jet Dryer” Car

One of the most infamous residents of the Racecar Graveyard is Juan Pablo Montoya's No. 42 Chevy from Daytona in 2012, popularly known as the "jet dryer" car.

Driver: Juan Pablo Montoya

Car: No. 42 Target Chevrolet Impala SS (the Jet Dryer car)

Track: Daytona International Speedway (Feb. 27, 2012)

Bio: Hardly any introduction is needed for this car, as nearly everyone who has ever watched a NASCAR event has seen the highlight. Montoya has seen it several hundred times himself, including up close and personal, and is over it. The rest of us, however, could use a recap.

With 40 laps to go in the 2012 Daytona 500, Montoya was hustling around the 2.5-mile superspeedway after a pit stop, trying to catch the field. As he neared Turn 3, the car lurched to the right and began to spin. As this was happening, a jet dryer (basically a truck with a trailer carrying a surplus turbine engine used in helicopters) was against the wall, blowing debris off the track. Another pickup truck was behind it as a rear guard.

What had happened, Montoya said later that the right rear truck arm (which connects the rear-end housing to the chassis) broke. When that happened, the frame of the car went down to the track surface, causing the spin. In other words, Montoya was unable to steer away from the safety equipment at the top of the track.

Montoya’s car slid between the jet dryer truck and the trail truck, impacting the trailer that carried the dryer at a fairly high rate of speed. The 200 gallons of jet fuel on the dryer truck reacted as you would expect at the impact, bursting into flame. And what a flame it was. The jet fuel burned hot and long, damaging the track to the point where the race was postponed for more than two hours while NASCAR washed, dried, re-washed, re-dried and patched the racing surface.

“That was a freak accident, and in a way, I was very, very lucky to walk away from that one,” Montoya told AP after the crash. “Not only myself, but the guy driving the jet dryer. To walk away with nothing out of that it was a miracle. I was glad it was over."

Duane Barnes was the driver of the truck carrying the jet dryer. He escaped as well, being led down the track after the explosion. The badly shaken Barnes was transported to Halifax Medical Center and released.

Montoya’s car was destroyed in the crash, as you might expect. Chris “Shine” Heroy, who was Montoya’s crew chief at the time, was a former engineer on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Hendrick Motorsports team, and offered the car to him when it got back to North Carolina. It became one of the more infamous stars of the Racecar Graveyard soon after.