Joe Gibbs Racing driver Brad Coleman was testing a Gibbs NASCAR Sprint Cup Series car at Toyota Arizona Proving Grounds earlier this week and came onto the radio and told his crew something rather unusual.
“Guys, I hit a coyote,” Coleman said.
Coleman was running close to 200 mph around the 10-mile test track when he saw the animal wander under the outside guardrail.
“I’m in the middle of the corner, and I’m doing like 190,” Coleman said Friday at Nashville Superspeedway before practicing his Nationwide Series car. "I’m just cruising. You run the high line there, because that’s where the most banking is. It’s the high-speed lane. There’s just a guardrail there like on the freeway.
“I see this thing, it must’ve been 100 feet in front of me, just jump out. Right when I saw it come out from under the guardrail, I was like, ‘That’s a coyote.’”
“It just started smoking like crazy,” Coleman said. “And it smelled terrible. I didn’t see anything in the mirror, so I was like, ‘I wonder where it went?’ I said, ‘Guys, I hit a coyote. I’m going to come in because I think it screwed up the radiator. I think it clogged up the grille a little bit.’”
