Denny Hamlinwas sitting atop the speed charts after 30 laps of the early afternoon Cup practice at Martinsville Speedway. But his day quickly went sour when a piece of rubber jammed his throttle open, and in order to scrub speed from the car, he turned the steering wheel, sending his car crashing backwards into the wall. As soon as the TV announcers saw the significant damage to the right rear, they concluded that the No. 11 crew would need to pull out a backup car. Chris Gabehart, crew chief of the No. 11, and his crew at Joe Gibbs Racing, though, had a different idea. They brought in NASCAR’s Hawk-eye Optical Scanning Station (OSS) to evaluate the damage — helping them repair a presumed-totaled car in mere hours.
Here's how they did it.
