The anticipated return of Keith Haney Racing’s “Enigma” Chevrolet won’t happen as planned this weekend, but Keith Haney will still have a large presence at the Outlaw Radial Revolution No Mercy 7 event at South Georgia Motorsports Park.
Keith Haney
An accident during testing at Osage Casino Tulsa Raceway Park last week put Haney’s Lucas Oil/RacingJunk.com on the sidelines. Haney, though, was not injured and will attend the race, serve as a color analyst on the broadcast team and have his KHR merchandise trailer at the track.
“I’m sad that I’m not going to be there driving my car, ‘Enigma,’ and to be able to compete in the best class there is to run in, Radial vs. the World,” Haney said. “But I am going to the race. Although I am not racing, I am going to be there supporting it, supporting my fans. We’ve had an unbelievable turnout of T-shirt sales.”
Haney had the car nicknamed “Enigma” built in the off-season specifically for drag radial events. But after making nine terrific passes at Tulsa last week – many going under one second in 60-foot times – the Camaro had trouble on a pass last Wednesday night.
“The car’s going down the track, the flames are lit perfect, and all of a sudden it goes straight left,” Haney said. “It didn’t shake the tires, it didn’t give me any warning, nothing. As an early observation it either broke an axle or over-extended a shock.
“The car is back at Larry Jeffers Race Cars getting fixed. At this point, it looks like it broke an axle.
Haney has endured good-natured ribbing from those in the drag radial world after scraping the wall earlier this year, and he was able to joke with them over this crash.
“Everybody’s been giving me a hard time on the internet about being a ‘wall-hugger,’ and I still hug the walls, I guess,” Haney said with a laugh. “Donald Long said I’d hit the wall, others said I’d hit the wall. Well, guess what, I hit the wall.”
Long, promoter of the race, reached out to Haney to join Lee Sebring on the internet broadcast team.
“I love drag racing, I love the radial class,” Haney said. “I’m sad that I’m not going to be there for my sponsors. And it’s too bad I won’t be able to kick everyone’s ass, but I’ll be talking on the mic and kicking their ass. They’ll still know my name.”
Sponsors Lucas Oil, RacingJunk.com, Switzer Dynamics, Pesz Performance & Tuning, Reher Morrison, M&M Transmission and Adam Lambert from Precision Racing Suspension help make Haney’s PDRA team possible, and he continues to appreciate the support from wife Dee and his children Timber, Alex, Madison and Logan.
Haney’s family of car dealerships includes Suburban Chevrolet in Claremore; Classic Chevrolet in Owasso, Okla.; Miami Auto Supercenter in Miami, Okla.; Regional Hyundai in Broken Arrow, Okla.; Nissan of Muskogee, Okla.; and Bartlesville (Okla.) Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram.