Bob Bode And Dale Creasy Put On A Pre-4th Fireworks Show In Chicago

You could say it’s been a tough season thus far to be a Funny Car body.

Somewhere out there in the great flopper graveyard rests a healthy number of shattered, tattered, and burned carbon fiber shells from the first twelve events of the 2014 season, and although popular independent runners Bob Bode and Dale Creasy Jr. didn’t exactly kill off their respective race cars at the O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Route 66 Nationals in Chicago over the weekend, they sure got things nice and toasty on an already hot weekend during qualifying.

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Bode got the fireworks started at his home track during Friday evening’s second session of professional qualifying when, just before the eighth-mile mark, his mount erupted into a massive fireball — one of the biggest you’ll see out of a Funny Car — that sent him careening toward the center stripe. Fortunately, despite his field of view being filled with red-hot flames, Bode handled the car like the pro he is, got the fire bottles off, and brought the car to a safe halt in the shutdown area. And after that unplanned excursion, his team got things turned around on Saturday and punched into the show with a 4.16.

Another area racer that calls Route 66 Raceway his home track, Creasy Jr. then added a little encore for the crowd that was in attendance on Saturday. The Beecher, Illinois native, who was sitting 18th in the qualifying order, was making one final attempt at cracking into the field in the fourth session under the lights, and perhaps put a fuse about 100 feet too short into the tune-up, as the Tek-Pak Chevrolet lit up the night sky just before the 1,000-foot mark, burning well into the shutdown area before Creasy brought the smoldering race car to a stop and quickly jumped from the escape hatch to cooler environs. The insult to injury for Creasy — the 4.43 he put up on fire was only good for 17th at the time, and eventually placed him 18th in the order, outside of the race day field.

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Videos courtesy ESPN/NHRA