The last thing that you want to experience in your race car at any speed – even cruising back up the return road at 5-10 miles per hour – is for the steering wheel to suddenly come off in your hands, leaving you a helpless passenger unless you’re able to act quick. But at upwards of 150 miles per hour, with the parachutes blossoming and a good bit of brake pressure being applied to get stopped on a relatively short shutdown area, the steering wheel departing from the shaft suddenly takes on a whole new level of concern.

Over the weekend, Steven Fereday and the rest of the Late Model Racecraft crew were out at Houston Motorsports Park with their LSX-powered Outlaw Drag Radial Firebird Firehawk to make some hits with a new setup in the car. Fereday hasn’t been in the car for nearly 8 months, and his abilities were put to the test on the very first lap down the track, as he crossed the finish stripe and the hit of the parachutes caused him to pull the loose steering wheel from the column. The presumption is that following an alignment check earlier in the day, the wheel simply didn’t get clicked back on properly. Surprisingly, the car went completely straight and from any other vantage point besides the in-car camera, you’d never know Steve was in the cockpit fumbling to get the wheel back on to the shaft. Often when this occurs, the driver will grab a hold of the shaft and and attempt to steer the car with it, but Fereday calmly got it reattached and the car slowed in plenty of time. No word yet on the condition of his underpants, however.