Nascar 1991 - J.D. McDuffie's Fatal Crash at Watkins Glen

[christinalauren01]

Hello, this was my cousin... My maiden name is McDuffie... I am shocked to realize that people actually posted negative comments about my cousin... He left behind a wife and kids... He was a great racer to have went so long & raced without sponsership & race Independently. I really feel sad for those of you that have negative things to say about someone's death. What a miserable life you must lead. Everyone else, thank you! :)

[USMCharder]

this is why they put the dog leg in the track. it now slows the car down before they make this turn.

[duncaann]

Today, exactly 20 years ago. RIP

[slideguy]

yes sir, this was the crash that ruined the famed track by putting in the "bus stop" turn.

Too bad, it was such a great track until the NASCAR circus started coming.

[MattA1GP]

@slideguy It woulda had the bus stop in it regardless. Tommy Kendall was seriously injured in a wreck at the same corner in the IMSA GTP race that year as well.

[littleturbo05]

Hello everyone Im the third cusin of JD McDuffle my mom the second and my granddaddy is the first to JD wanted to thank nyyankfan and battalionfan888 for showing me how my cusin died i never knew i was to young to remember i would have been five and thanks again for post these videos from the McDuffie family

[mw2masterful]

@littleturbo05 thats cool but sorry about your cousin it must of been hard for everybody. but i also have a great grandpa that raced and he crashed and broke his ribs but still won his car flipped over the finish line but yeah i guess ill talk to you later.

[Fekmann]

If I remember correctly, this accident was what prompted them to put in the "bus stop" chicane at the Glen--to slow down cars before they hit this corner.

[P0werwise]

This crash was fuckin' hilarious.

[jailguardsgt1041]

you are a major asshole and your fatal crash is gonna be hilarious to me

[RothmansRenaultF1]

I just want to fuckin stab you in your artery queer

[debo2969]

THE LAST RESPOSE WAS DEDICATED TOWARD

TheAmusingCorpse.

Not directed towards this video

[debo2969]

Hey you piece of SHIT.... You keep making fun of people dying. You made fun of Bill Elliot's crew member dying when changing the tire and getting hit by the number 5 car. You think that's funny. YOUR A PIECE OF SHIT....

I HOPE SOMEBODY BREAKS YOUR NECK.

[LusterPurge94]

j.d. mcduffie never won a single race, sadly, so he holds the record for most consecutive starts without a win. it's some huge number like 749 or something.

[MrRunout]

653.

[LusterPurge94]

well i was close.

[DFDSFUEIFH]

No, it's NOT 700! LMAO. It's 656.

[Sonicnascar11]

burn in hell plz

[mkl62]

In Ed Hinton's book, Daytona, he referred to McDuffie as one of the saddle tramps of NASCAR. Frank Warren, Blackie Wangerin, Baxter Price, & D.K. Ulrich were among those who literally went from race to race with very limited resources and almost no sponsorship. They existed race to race, paycheck to paycheck, before the days of big corporate sponsorship. To me, they are the real heroes of NASCAR.

[vidEvWill]

Jimmy Means who was involved in the crash with McDuffie also was a single car owner.

[tedracefan]

This was a horrible day, I was there for this race. This was before the days of the inner loop, which was put in later to slow the cars and avoid this type of accident, so JD was probably doing in excess of 170 mph when he lost his brakes. Tragic day.

[jasperbaba]

the guy in the first car was lucky he flew up.

if he didnt duffys car would have killed him too

[vidEvWill]

That's Jimmy Means.

[e521soediv]

hey theeyetti and sharky108111 got to hell

[classicf1]

Probably the same person they are both fuck wits and its how lame sharky is.

[Sonicnascar11]

I feel sorry for John McDuffie! He did alot for Nascar.

[bingbong0]

ffffucking hell i neva seen sumething like that he hit full on wiht a wall and got thrown in the air like 10 feet

[Sonicnascar11]

Idiot

[slitheringinterstate]

Does anyone know what killed McDuffie? Was it the extremely hard hit into the tire barrier, or was it landing on his roof? What was his fatal injury? And what caused it? Anybody know?

[lambochops07]

quote from wikipedia= a brake failure resulted in the loss the right rear wheel on his car, at perhaps the worst place in racing to have such a failure. Unable to slow the car at all, and with an absence of a gravel trap, McDuffie skidded across the grass and slammed with tremendous velocity into the tire barrier outside the high speed left-hander. but the sheer violence of the J.D.'s impact with the tires made the impact unsurvivable for McDuffie.

[goody054]

yes slither as lamb put it it was the impact with the barrier that took his life, i was the rescurer that crawled across the barrier to help render aide...i have the exact result straight from my accout of being there and from nascar

[dkstryker]

wasnt he decapitated by the accident?

[raceway24]

Actually, little known fact about this accident is that one of the metal poles supporting the fence came through the car and impaled J.D. I won't get into gruesome facts but it was pretty bad. I just talked to a guy that helped Jimmy Means and he gave me the info. There's a full clip of this wreck elsewhere on here where they interview Jimmy and he says he hopes J.D. is OK even though he knew he was dead already. For appearance sake he had to do the "proper" NASCAR thing and not talk about it.

[dkstryker]

wow yeah i saw that other video and i was wondering why they were holding those walls up around the car and i figured somthing bad liked that happened and they didnt want the fans to see.

[SwanKong11]

Yeah, when Jimmie first looks inside the car he must have seen something more than just J.D. unconscious or something because he throws a shit fit trying to get the safety crews over there. Such a sad sad day in NASCAR.

[montyth]

I've heard decapitated from a former crew chief, and I've heard completely cut in half from a former crew member of Jimmy Means. Tragic, but it did bring safety changes, which may have saved many lives. RIP JD Mcduffie.

[TheeYeti]

AHAHAHA!!!! This is hilarious. I'm glad he died :D

[Ppd264]

WTF is wrong with you! I hope you die! what if someone really close to you passed away.. how would you feel?

R.I.P John McDuffie!

[rustyshackleford01]

i hope YOU die, and when you do ill piss on your dead body

[ILikeCheeze24]

why r u glad he died? what did he ever do to you?

[jailguardsgt1041]

This is possible one of those liberal faggot peta freaks

[fatriani]

F1 pilots, historically have trouble racing in america, Indianapolis in particular. Mansell being the exception(cause he's the last bad-ass that was in F1). and even he broke his back at Indianapolis. sure Jimmy Clark, and Graham Hill won, but they were awesome. but drivers like Nelson Piquet, Michael Schumacher, Juan Fangio etc.. the list goes on. were either too scared too try the 500, or got seriously injured trying

[Fatman86]

so everyone who don´t want to die, or takes the risk but got injured is a wuzz? You´re a damn idiot.

[fatriani]

if you wanna have fun, race in america. if you wanna deal with mutilated versions of what used to be great tracks, bullshit rules, Bernie Eccelstone, and the now retarded fan-base, be miserable, but make a tad bit more money, race in F1

[fatriani]

why do you think Montoya left? he was tired of pussy FIA bullshit. thats why many european drivers love racing in America. its more respectable, because in europe its all about teams and points, but in america its about driving. id like to see F1 race at watkins glen again. after the first practice, all the 20 year old pussy pilots would be complaining about how dangerous it is. DEAL WITH IT. Jackie Stewart did. <--example of real man

[ProfessorIgor]

Jackie Stewart quit racing in the middle of the GP weekend at Watkins Glen after the death of his friend Jean Francois Cevert... He dealt with it, he walked away.

[ballsthatclank]

Could the music in this clip possibly be MORE depressing. Cut that stupid music out.

[franticfury]

After that race, they put in the backstrech inner loop to slow the cars down before that turn.

[nascarfancar8]

your a jackass !

[gth804f]

You're a fucking idiot and I hope someone stabs you in your artery.

[ballsthatclank]

Ayrton Senna forgot to turn left also.

He wound up with a nice suspension rod in his brain. :- )

[ProfessorIgor]

totally uncalled for.... HE was turning left, his car however, did not.

[fatriani]

F1 used to be about men,cromo. i mean REAL men. not pussies like Alonso or Jaques Villeneuve. when i watched F1 back in the day, it was great. now theres so many rules and shitty safety regulations and course changes that are unnecessary i.e Monza. back when i watched it, THERE WAS ACTUALLY PASSING AT MONTE CARLO. if you can even believe that

[oldnateman]

Shortly after the race I heard from a friend who was a corner worker at the Glen for the race that the cause of the crash was an exploding brake rotor on the left front. A piece of the rotor went through the firewall and hit JD in the chest killing him almost instantly.

[Randildo]

Jimmy Means hit pretty hard too.

[word360]

As someone said above, the slow-mo could have a false impression on this crash, that loked like a very hard hit.

[Ryano118]

this is on one of my crash videos where they say no one was injured or died so this shocked me

[meatmarket]

Wow. Watching that crash with the music playing gives me the chills every time. What a sad loss.

[Maker55]

I have another angle of the crash

[nadeau1064]

What angle is that?

[coolconman1]

Where?

[avenged7fold332]

can you post it?

[nadeau1064]

John Delphus "J.D." McDuffie was one of the last of NASCAR's true independent owner-drivers. He ran his team on a shoestring budget for more than three decades. McDuffie was an amiable, personable driver who had an affinity for cigars, once known for taping several to his car's dashboard for longer events. His cars were assembled and maintained by himself and a close circle of friends sponsored the car that often arrived at the track on the back of a worn-out flatbed.

[coolconman1]

And he only raced 4 races that year. He went everywhere, trying to qualify for every race. Too bad that one of the races that he qualified for was this one.

[nadeau1064]

McDuffie, age 52 in 1991, had gone 652 starts in his familiar #70 without a single victory. A pole at Dover in 1978 allowed McDuffie to enter the inaugural Busch Clash at Daytona, today called The Budweiser Shootout. Though he had only qualified for four NASCAR events in the first half of the season, McDuffie also won an exhibition race against members of Dale Earnhardt's pit crew the very night before the infamous Watkins Glen event.

[nadeau1064]

During the weekend at The Glen in 1991, several drivers had trouble in the backstretch braking zone and wrecked in that same spot. Michael Waltrip's Pennzoil team lost its primary car, Ricky Rudd's Tide team needed to borrow a new front-end from Earnhardt's team to replace their destroyed one, and road ringer Tom Kendall was unable to follow-up his near-win at Sears Point's NASCAR race earlier in 1991 when he was injured in a Trans-Am wreck in the same corner.

[nadeau1064]

On the third lap of the 90-lap race, McDuffie's old Pontiac was battling with fellow independent driver Jimmy Means near the back of the pack when McDuffie lost a tire in the braking zone and was unable to slow down, sending both cars hard into the barrier.

[coolconman1]

5th lap.

[nadeau1064]

Means, with a noticeable scar on his chin, climbed out of his car and peered into McDuffie's machine, only to jump back and wave the approaching ambulances to the scene. Ned Jarrett, reporting near the corner for ESPN at the time of the accident, interviewed a stunned Means, who said, "I'm okay, but I don't know about J.D."

[nadeau1064]

After an extended red-flag period, it was announced that McDuffie had perished in the accident. The race was completed with Ernie Irvan winning his first race since the Daytona 500 that year.

[tomateiro]

IMO the slow motion could cause another impression of the crash

[JokaPlaya]

10 YEARS? Hook us up, brother!

[chicagocub1988]

I too wondered about this, but I know a guy who runs a local race store here in Richmond. If you watch, you can see a flemsy steel rail "supporting" the tire barrier and fence. When he flips, one of these pierces the car, decapitating him. Sad but true

[aphelionaxeman]

I have a VHS of the actual race, and it's much clearer than this. His head visibly moves around inside the car, but nothing goes through the car itself. JD was an independent driver who didn't have the best equipment, and inspections back then weren't as strict as they are today. I think he died because his equipment just wasn't as well-built as the stuff the top teams used.

I'm gonna hook up the VCR and start going through all the old NASCAR tapes I have...well over 10 years worth of them.

[Zadan]

the (now compulsary) HANS device would of saved his life.

[commadore183]

I could be wrong, but I don't think the HANS device would have helped, since it was a sideways impact as opposed to a head-on impact (which the HANS device was designed for). The same thing happened to Jerry Nadeau at Richmond a few years ago; he had the HANS device (or its equivalent), and still had severe head injuries when he hit driver side into the outside wall in practice.

Either way, it is a tragic death. RIP JD.

[DixieGurl333]

Ive always heard about this crash but never seen it till now. Sadly the safety in Nascar then was no where near what it is today. Many accidents that were fatal back then could of been avoidable but if many of the crashes that happen these days had happend back in the 90s and before there would be many more fatal accidents.

[3fan4eva]

Thats why they put in that chicain

[XxX06SSXxX]

Yea, I wanted to see this one as well. And same with Dale's crash at Daytona which I whitnessed. I have seen worse crashes than that and I was shoked when he died. Not sure of JD's age though. Still, a nasty crash.

[PsychedelicGuy]

If they had them foam barriers he prolly woulda been ok. I've waited a long time to see this crash...Honestly I dun know why he died, I've seen worse hits that have killed drivers. Maybe age had somthing to do w/ it? He was like well into his 50's if i recall.

[wolves16]

He hit his head on something in the car.

Remember, in 1991 there were no 'hans' devices, and most drivers had open face helmets- like McDuffie.