Pushing a Top Fuel dragster to nearly 10,000 RPM sends it hurtling down the strip at over 330 mph, where drivers often describe the sensation as pure tunnel vision, body and machine blurring into one relentless force against physics. Crashes at those velocities turn routine runs into chaos, from engines exploding in fireballs to cars flipping end over end, leaving little room for error. Most fade from memory amid the sport’s relentless pace, but some etch themselves into fans’ minds forever, like the heartbreaking 2001 Daytona wreck that claimed Dale Earnhardt Sr. and shook NASCAR to its core. Lately, a similar shadow fell over NHRA when Tony Stewart and Doug Kalitta tangled in a high-stakes showdown.

That moment at Maple Grove Raceway echoed those dark days, stirring uneasy parallels as

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