An engine explosion in the lights by a Funny Car that pops the burst panel and splinters the body at the fenders wouldn’t normally make for much of a newsworthy story, but when you consider the circumstances for driver Tommy Johnson Jr. and team owner Don Schumacher over the last three weeks, it certainly comes with a degree of intrigue.

Just two weeks ago at the NHRA Southern Nationals in Atlanta, Johnson Jr. and the Make-A-Wish team did a number on not one, but two of their Dodge Charger bodies on back-to-back runs in eliminations, completely obliterating one of them and doing some considerable damage to the other. After a relatively trouble-free weekend in Topeka, the team tore another one up in the third session of qualifying at the NHRA Summernationals in Englishtown on Saturday when something in the engine let go with authority at the 1,000-foot stripe. 

With the carbon fiber shells quoted at a cost of anywhere from $50,000 to $75,000 apiece, the destruction is no laughing matter for Schumacher, who ultimately writes the checks to purchase and repair them. After the Saturday boomer, Johnson Jr. returned in the final session with what appeared to be one of Ron Capps’ NAPA bodies — sans most of the NAPA scheme.

“Right as I was lifting, it blew up,” said Johnson. ”But it was on a good run, and the car is performing really well. We have to do a little more investigating, but we believe we know why it happened today. Every incident we’ve had recently has been from a different cause; it’s just a little bit of bad luck, but we aren’t letting it get us down because it’s something that we can fix – and the guys are working hard. We were right back up there for the fourth session and didn’t miss a beat. It was really neat to have all the other teams coming over and helping, and we know we’ll be all right. We’re ready to go for first round.”