Hood Flies Up on Justin Haley's No. 7 Car During Practice Run
Disaster struck for Justin Haley and the No. 7 Spire Motorsports team with roughly 10 minutes remaining in Saturday afternoon's NASCAR Cup Series practice session for Sunday's Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway.
As Haley was completing his 20th lap of the session, the hood flew up on his Chevrolet as he was barreling down the front straightaway heading toward Turn 1.
Here is the wild moment for Justin Haley and the No. 7 Spire Motorsports team, where the hood flew up on their car while the driver was making another run in practice. pic.twitter.com/94k1FW5Z3p
— Toby Christie (@Toby_Christie) March 29, 2025
Prime Video, which was providing television coverage of the practice session, had a camera pointed at Haley's car when the situation happened, and it appeared that the team failed to get the hood pins popped back into place before Haley returned to the track to test out adjustments that were made on pit road.
Haley, who picked up his first top-10 finish of the season last weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway, was 34th-fastest in the practice session prior to the hood incident. Haley's fastest lap was a 20.388 second lap time, which was 0.273-seconds off the session-leading pace set by 23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace.
After assessing the damage sustained due to the hood flying up on their car, the No. 7 Spire Motorsports team determined that they would not need to repair their car prior to Saturday's qualifying session, which meant that Haley was eligible to compete in the qualifying session.
Haley would go on to turn a fast lap time of 19.991 seconds in Saturday afternoon's qualifying session, which secured the driver the 30th starting spot for Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway.
Recommended Articles
Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.