This has to be one of the most incredible code brown moments I’ve seen in a long time.

Cruz Pedregon was lined up next to Robert Hight, and about 330 feet into his run, the nose of his funny car lifted off the ground, as noted by. Pedregon kept the steering as straight as he could for when the car landed, and his car’s wheelie bar kept it from flipping over backwards.

Pedregon’s rear wheels touched down at about 600 feet in the run, and the car maintained a completely insane wheelstand on to the finish line. Despite becoming more kite than car, he still won the first round at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Pedregon’s flying machine posted a 4.224-second pass on the quarter-mile drag strip with a top speed of 218.55 mph. Meanwhile, Hight had a messy, tire-smoking start off the line and that resulted in a 6.649-second, 105.01-mph pass. Oops!

Pedregon said to Competition Plus:

I think I wheelstood longer than the Wright Brothers flew through the air.

Sounds about right. Pedregon, who also owns the car, had a bit of back pain afterwards from the landing, but immediately went into team-owner mode trying to diagnose what went wrong with the car and of course, get his ride ready for the next race.

[H/T Alan!]