As a small-tire tire racer you know at bigger events if you don’t bring your ‘A’ game in qualifying, there’s a better-than-average chance you won’t be on the ladder come race day.  If you’re on the bubble, on the outside looking in, or not where you want to be in the field, its time to dial up the big boy tune-up and let it eat.

At the Street Car Super Nationals at Gateway Motorsports Park in St. Louis, Missouri native Troy Williams, in this nitrous huffing Nova, decided to get after it and lay it all on the line in qualifying — but the resulting backfire was not the desired result.

When you spray the house down with nitrous the results can be incredible — quick elapsed times, big mile an hour, and big old gorilla flames that make for great pictures. The downside to throwing a bunch of giggle juice at a car is the dreaded nitrous backfire that can scare the driver just as much as everyone else. Most backfires are caused either by too rich of a tune-up that causes fuel to build up in the intake and then combust, or just going to lean with your tune.

Sean over at Urban Hillbilly Video caught all of the nitrous explosion gore as this Nova peels its hood back at speed. The car kicks the tires at the hit and Williams has to do a quick pedal job to keep it hooked up and going. Everything appears to be going well until the top end, when the car sputters slightly before the ensuing eruption sends the hood right over onto the windshield and roof. Despite all of that chaos, Williams was able to safely stop the car and assess the damage.