We’re going to bring you memorable NHRA Winternationals moments all week long and while they are not all wrecks, some of them have to be because they are just so spectacular to watch. One of the most stunning crashes in Winternationals history happened during the 1992 race on a qualifying pass that saw Oklahoma’s Jimmy Nix on one side of the strip and Doug Herbert on the other. As you will see Nix suffered a massive blow over just before the finish line and it only got worse from there.

The car corkscrewed in the air and smashed down into the ground engine first. Amazingly the car slid nearly the entire length of the shutdown area perfectly centered in its lane. Unfortunately as it did so, the car was blazing and because it was sliding engine first, all that fire bathed Jimmy Nix for the whole ride down the track until the car entered the sand trap and the catch nets at a high rate of speed. Nix was airlifted to UC Irvine hospital with burns to his hands and feet and released not too long after arriving. It seems like a miracle that he was not more banged up from this mishap than that.

Blow overs were certainly not a common occurrence at the races but during the late 1980s and early 1990s they happened with enough frequency to keep everyone on there toes. In his report from the race for the LA Times the legendary Shav Glick reported that the front wings failed on Nix’s dragster causing it to flip over. This does make some sense as the massive rear wing would have worked as the proverbial fat kid on one side of a see-saw. Without anything counterbalancing it, the car would be free to go skyward and beyond. Scary stuff!

We have two videos below showing the insane ride took at Pomona 1992