The ways in which one can lose a drag race are virtually infinite, but losing AND tearing up your race car is certainly among the more personally demoralizing ways to go about it. But that’s precisely what happened to doorslammer veteran Rickie Smith, who endured a very, very rare miscue in the final round at the NHRA Springnationals in Houston on Sunday that left him with a tattered race car.

Smith, a two-time champion of the NHRA Pro Modified Drag Racing Series (and, little known fact, also the winner of the very first NHRA Pro Mod race back in 2001), was the class of the field at the Royal Purple Raceway in Houston, nearly matching his career best in qualifying to lead the 16-car field with a 5.779 (at a career best speed of 250.46 mph) and set low elapsed time in two of the first three rounds of eliminations on his way to the final against Jim Whiteley.

With more than a tenth of a second advantage over Whiteley throughout the day, the King, north Carolina native was the odds on favorite versus the former Top Alcohol Dragster champion appearing in his first career Pro Mod final. But no one could have gambled that Smith and his ultra-consistent Camaro would get loose early in the run and slap both guardrails.

Fortunately, Whiteley was alert and able to shut his supercharged Chevelle down without making contact with the out-of-control Smith as he shot across the race track on two wheels right in his path. With Smith’s crossing of the centerline (and striking the wall), Whiteley was automatically handed his first victory, despite not crossing the finish line (a racer is simply required to take the tree and have the ‘lesser’ of the fouls during the run, and does not have to cross the finish line).

Smith, who recently sold the twin turbocharged, Jerry Bickel-built Camaro that he had built to Dan Stevenson — that could have perceivably served as a backup plan — will be burning the midnight oil to make repairs to his IDG machine in time for the next stop on the NHRA Pro Mod trail in Atlanta in less than two weeks.