J. D. McDuffie - Death

Death

McDuffie was involved in an accident on the fifth lap of the 1991 Budweiser At The Glen race at Watkins Glen International. On the straight between the Esses and the Loop-Chute, at 170 mph, McDuffie and Jimmy Means touched wheels. McDuffie's driver's side outer tie rod end dropped from the front wheel spindle, which caused him to lose control of the position of the right side tire/wheel. Further, the impact caused the front wheel assembly to completely fall off the car, starting a chain reaction that resulted in all of McDuffie's brakes failing. This left him no way of stopping the car or steering it away, and to further complicate matters there was no gravel trap in the corner that McDuffie was headed toward. As a result, McDuffie skidded across the grass and hit the outside retaining wall and tire barrier with such force that the car shot into the air, rotated in mid-air, and then came to rest upside down. Means also crashed into the same corner but was able to slow his vehicle down before the impact; his car went under McDuffie's as it was in mid-air. Means, a fellow independent racer, suffered only minor cuts and bruises in the accident, and got out of his car to check on JD. After peering into McDuffie's car, he began frantically signaling for assistance, and a host of medical personnel and track workers rushed to the scene. The race was delayed for an hour as McDuffie was removed from his car and his car was removed from the infield. Also, the wall that McDuffie and Means struck had to be repaired. As the cars got back on the track and cruised under yellow flag conditions, the media attention turned to Chip Williams, NASCAR's PR director, who disclosed that McDuffie had lost his life in the accident. The 52-year-old was survived by wife Ima Jean, son Jeff (who himself drove in five Winston Cup events), and daughter Linda. NASCAR Media Coordinator Chip Williams, in his interview with ESPN's Jerry Punch, erroneously reported that McDuffie was 53; he would not have been until December 5 of that year.

McDuffie's death led to changes at Watkins Glen. Six weeks earlier, Camel GT Prototype driver Tommy Kendall had a hard crash in the same section during the Camel Continental VIII, when a wheel failed on his Pratt & Miller Intrepid-Chevrolet prototype, sliding into the barrier, breaking both ankles and sidelining him for the rest of the 1991 season, including the Cup race, where he was set to substitute for Kyle Petty, injured at Talladega in May with a leg injury. (Kendall had substituted for Petty at Sears Point earlier in the year.) The track then responded with a bus stop chicane placed slightly before the entrance of Turn 5, the section of track in question, and a gravel trap, for the 1992 season.

McDuffie's widow, Ima Jean, unsuccessfully (as of September 1993) sued Watkins Glen for $4.25 million, claiming the barrier McDuffie hit was unsafe. The judge in that case ruled that McDuffie was familiar enough with the track to be aware of the dangers and that mechanical failure caused the accident.

J. D. McDuffie is still the record holder for the most starts in NASCAR's top touring series without recording a win. His 653 starts ranks him 17th in all-time starts (as of April 2009).