We got an update on the current location of Freak from Daniel Webster, the truck chief for many of Fontaine's races: "It's currently sitting at Fontaine's shop still, crumpled. People have offered to try to fix it one more time. But for now it's sitting in rough shape :/"
How can a chassis survive 14 times being smashed against the wall and still be competitive? Dear god...I´d like to think about it as a marvelous piece of backyard engineering
I'm guessing they just cut off the broken pieces and welded on new ones. Or perhaps NASCAR vehicles are modular enough that broken pieces can be replaced without cutting.
@@HirokaAkita might be cool since dodge have an upcoming performance based ram called t-rex or bring back the old dodge sheet metal and put it in dodge or nascar museum
Awesome and fascinating video! Safe to say, Freak died in a freak accident at Talladega... Rest in Peace, Freak. 1998-2018 Gone but will never be forgotten.
Wow. I was actually given my first 1:24 scale die-cast by an old work friend, and it happened to be Bobby Hamilton's number 04 Tech-Net truck. I had no idea it was essentially the same truck that ran Dega last year! That's crazy!
Why did Chris Fontaine not just retire I mean the Truck Series is enough chaos alone we don't need Chris Fontaine wrecking every race I mean really glad he not racing this year
Spent time working on Freak at BHR and was in the stands the day it ran last. Brought a year to my eye when it hit the wall. Glad to see this video about it, it sure was a hot rod. It even survived catching fire when somebody left the oil heaters plugged in on the chassis dyno overnight lol. Hope somebody picks it up and restores it. I hear Danny Rollins has it's twin, Slim, sitting in his garage.
I worked for Bobby Hamilton Racing when they moved operations to Virginia. If Im not mistaken Freak was involved in a fire on the dyno back in 2009. I cant remember the cause.
Andy Hillenburg still names his chassis.... In the shop right now we have, Pumpkin Joe Leonardo Champ Rusty Pinky Tuscadero Yoda(Died as the 10 car at Talladega at this years ARCA race) Tiger and Abe I think naming chassis is so cool, noone does it anymore.
Even though my dad races dirt we still name are cars most of them most of his late Models where called Dorothy we had like four. One was Castiel. There were other names bit I can't remember them.
Hey nascarman! You should do a review on the 2006 Dollar General 300 (October 13, 2006...it was Friday the 13th!). That race contained all of the following: - An exciting finish!! - Big crashes! - Underdog winner - Michael Freakin' Waltrip finishing 2nd! - Stacey Compton finished 3rd! - Leader Jinxes! - Scoring Loop errors! - Danny O'Quinn, Jr.finishing 5th! (Never heard of him? Me neither!) - Virtually nobody on the lead lap! (5 cars) - Champion (mathematically) determined! - Probably the first time Brad Keselowski's name was ever mentioned in a race! - Casey Mears' last Busch Race in the Texaco/Havoline Dodge And much more!
I went to the Cup race at Charlotte the next day. I remember watching that Busch race from a hotel room near the track and trying to listen if I could hear the cars outside.
You should do a video on Robert Pressley, he’s my good family friend for many decades, neighbor, and boss. I’d love to see a video on his journey throughout the years from someone else’s view
I never knew that a racecar could be as interesting as the person that drives it. I know some people make fun of NASCAR, saying that "It's just driving in circles." but these are the types of things that make racing interesting.
Justin Haley killed FREAK!! 😭 The ghost of FREAK will now haunt him throughout his career. I do remember the chassis being pointed out at Dega,, didn't know it had such a storied career. GREAT VIDEO 👍👌🏁🏁
Good story my man . Huge NASCAR fan and I even was on speed channel in 2009 on NASCAR trivia and won and I I'm shocked I never knew about this truck. God bless you my man !!! And LINE UM UP AND LET'S GO RACING
If Jr doesn't want Freak then it should go into the Nascar Hall of Fame. Accompanied by this video, what a great representative of the Truck Series and it's long legacy.
Fantastic video, I have always been fascinated by the history of chassis of all race series. I remember Jayski's Nascar site used to contain history, some with very interesting facts of various cars such as Clint Bowyer's 2012 Fall Richmond Winner, which was the same chassis that got wrecked by Jeff Gordon at the Fall Phoenix Race in 2012 and Dale Jr's wrecked 2014 Bristol Night Race chassis in his graveyard originally debuted at the same race 2 years prior. Please do more videos like this, it would be interesting to know the longevity of some of the COT chassis cars in the Xfinity series, I think there may be some interesting stories there. I know Mike Harmon's Dodge Challenger that finished up last year was from 2010, maybe there are some older than that currently in the field?
IndyCar had one with Jerry Karl's McLaren chassis which saw use between 1973 and 1981. It even saw homemade ground effects and bodywork by the late 70s.
Gotta respect that they kept using it after all those crashes, always respect someone who rebuilds something once it is destroyed just to put it back into doing what it did before
Was that the car they used for the legendary no pit stop race at Martinvile in the 1990's that caused NASCAR to implement Fuel Cells at short tracks so racers could not win due to a no pit stop race by stretching fuel mileage to the max?
Some chassis' do live on for years after they race in Cup, or Xfinity in the ARCA series or some still remain in Late Model form. I dont know about 20 years later and of course not in the same series.
Wow, good find! The particular chassis Fontaine drove in all three races in 2005 was Beavis. Hamilton won with Beavis at Darlington in 2003 and Atlanta in 2004.
Can you do a video on the history of Riverhead raceway and / or the history of racing on long island? This was a great video on the history of a historic chassis..
My asphalt pro truck they are fiberglass truck bodies from ARP on a limited latemodel chassis but built for truck class was built in 1997 and ran in thousands of races never wrecked won hundreds of races and tons of series championships I got it in 2016 and it's still racing to this day running up front and way older then half the kids that race with us and this truck has a big 500 horsepower v8 in it too it's a Chevrolet motor
You never see this in Formula 1. Imagine if the Williams F1 team brought out the 1990 FW13B in the upcoming race in Cota few weeks from now. This is why Nascar is so special to me
That truck is 2 years older than me, and I watched it crash out for the final time live at Talladega last year. Happy I could be there in person for its last race :(
Arca is interesting when you think about the cars in that series especially the gen 4 are from a different time when nascar was the most popular American sport
Front clips on the jig. As long as the suspension components are located in the correct location and the center section deemed still safe it makes sense to use it at plate races. Unlike short tracks and non plate speedway there isn't a huge concern with the way the suspension travels. On plate races other than the bumps your not too overly concerned with how the frontend travels because for the most part the truck or car is pinned down all the way around the track at speed there is of course some difference between the straightaway and corners because the banking at 180+ mph will make the chassis squish down more.
It’s a common way to crash: getting pushed at a 45 degree angle into the wall. Before HANS and SMART barriers, it would either leave you without a scratch or kill you. Now it’s just a DNF.
My dad was a huge Dale Earnhardt and nascar fan, I was 6 when Dale passed away and I remember crying right there alongside my dad. I remember seeing a photo of my grandfather, the man looked eerily like Earnhardt and was a year younger than him when he passed away from cancer. I don’t know for certain if that’s why my dad connected and loved Earnhardt or not, what I do know is he still has several signed memorabilia from the races he attended.
@@SpudEater I was 15 years old and watching that race. I grew up in the 90s watching those guys like earnhardt and rusty Gordon and labontes and bill Elliot. They were ther personalities that made NASCAR and dale was NASCAR. When dale died so did NASCAR. There's no way NASCAR would be in the state that it is now if dale was alive. He would be on TV every day to say how stupid the chase and playoffs are.
@@hotdogs5265 Dale did not use a racing seat belt but a regular car seat belt, that is why it broke. Dale Never liked the Racing Belts and since they were not mandatory at the time just a seat belt was at the time, it was going to break at those speeds past 150 mph.
We got an update on the current location of Freak from Daniel Webster, the truck chief for many of Fontaine's races:
"It's currently sitting at Fontaine's shop still, crumpled. People have offered to try to fix it one more time. But for now it's sitting in rough shape :/"
Hope they either fix it or it goes to Jr's junkyard.
It would be cool if it ended up on display at the Hall of Fame.
@@keyboardwarrior327 with a story like that, that's exactly where it should be.
what the freak
Can it be fixed?
Freak should be nominated in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
Agree
Let him die with an incredible win crash thing then he can be in the hall
Euree Evangelista he already did...
Freak was the Dale Earnhardt of vehicles. A good old timer that died doing what it loved.
@@twistedyogert weirdly enough the Talladega crash that killed this truck looked a lot like Dale's fatal crash at Daytona
Can we make this a series where we follow chassis because this is awesome.
Hopefully we can do more. It was a fun video to do.
nascarman History I hope so! This was an excellent video! Great story!! Love your videos!! Keep it up!!
A good one to follow up on would be Kyle Busch chassis he won in before KBM, he won with it in the 15 and 51 at atlanta and other tracks
Yes please
@@nascarmanHistory 1:10 Mini you?
Cause of death: a freak accident
***fountaine**** dude literally tried his damndest to kill that truck every time he put it on a track.
Cause of death Justin haley
I’d say he just had too much to drink from the Fountaine of Youth.
This is so cool! My dad, Tim Horton, built the Freak, Timmy, and a few others on that BHR list!!
Realise your dad crafted a legend. The sheer destruction that chassis fought through gives me goosebumps.
Was your dad also a hockey player for the Toronto Maple Leafs?
@@braydenfletcher8159 Nope, different guy
@@dwhorton37122 is it a coincidence he's named after a donut shop?
And we all just thought he made great coffee...
How can a chassis survive 14 times being smashed against the wall and still be competitive?
Dear god...I´d like to think about it as a marvelous piece of backyard engineering
A great mechanic, that is.
I'm guessing they just cut off the broken pieces and welded on new ones. Or perhaps NASCAR vehicles are modular enough that broken pieces can be replaced without cutting.
Rigid tube frames be tuff.
It would be really cool to be rebuilt and giving its original Dodge sheet metal back.
Or, even better: Dodge asking to NASCAR if they can return to give new factory support, but *ONLY* for that truck.
@@HirokaAkita might be cool since dodge have an upcoming performance based ram called t-rex or bring back the old dodge sheet metal and put it in dodge or nascar museum
@@HirokaAkita Turn it street legal, just like Cleetus #3 truck. And let the legacy live on
@@Toxic2T o:
¿A legal nascar?
@@HirokaAkita Yes. UA-camr Cleetus McFarland from Florida has one
Awesome and fascinating video!
Safe to say, Freak died in a freak accident at Talladega...
Rest in Peace, Freak.
1998-2018
Gone but will never be forgotten.
This is one of the coolest stories in NASCAR I’ve heard.
Man, it's a Freak because it's survived so many gnarly crashes.
Mesousa Gaby Freaky Will
Something I didn't even realize recording this video was that Fontaine had the "Freak" nickname on the tailgate. I love little details like that!
Late ik but Hamilton Sr died in January of 2007 not December of 2006 but good video nonetheless
Wow.
I was actually given my first 1:24 scale die-cast by an old work friend, and it happened to be Bobby Hamilton's number 04 Tech-Net truck.
I had no idea it was essentially the same truck that ran Dega last year! That's crazy!
I swear to God Chris Fontaine wrecks a car every time he drives
Matt Dibenedetto Fan most times it’s horrible luck especially if he’s near the front.
Im with him chris is a good guy and decent driver
Why did Chris Fontaine not just retire I mean the Truck Series is enough chaos alone we don't need Chris Fontaine wrecking every race I mean really glad he not racing this year
Caiden Russell zip your mouth! I have been crashed by rich kids like Justin Haley my whole life! Screw you!
Spent time working on Freak at BHR and was in the stands the day it ran last. Brought a year to my eye when it hit the wall. Glad to see this video about it, it sure was a hot rod. It even survived catching fire when somebody left the oil heaters plugged in on the chassis dyno overnight lol. Hope somebody picks it up and restores it. I hear Danny Rollins has it's twin, Slim, sitting in his garage.
Dad said Catfish is still here in town. He's been trying to buy it but the owner won't part with it
*Freak* : Was I a good truck?
*Death* : No.
_silence_
*Death* : I was told you were one of the best.
Explains it the best
Not gonna lie. This kinda broke my heart
If this truck ever gets rebuilt, it should get those letters written on the back window.
You ass. I dont need these feelings this early in the morning....
A damn fine comment! Kinda had to clear my eyes there.
Hopefully Freak goes into the Hall of Fame
When the truck chassis lives longer than xxxtentacion
Big oof
This does put a smile on my face
Spotlight uh
That truck chassis will always be worth more than that filth....
@@JordanJank bitch please
it was in creative mode
Fr💀
It's unreal how much punishment that chassis went through.
What an incredible story about a truck and Chris Fontaine, great video.👍👍
Freak looked best as a Ram and I will always remember it as such.
Fontaine always seemed to be caught up in something. His light blue and orange paint scheme must be some sort of target for crashes.
Freak needs to be displayed in some sort of racing museum or rusting peacefully in Junebugs graveyard.
The Freak is not dead yet
Crew chief Kevin Ingram CFI
Woo! Freak still has a pulse!
I hope not, a twenty year old chassis is unheard of across really any racing series.
@@SpudEater what about H1 rally? There are cars from the late '60s raced still.
I worked for Bobby Hamilton Racing when they moved operations to Virginia. If Im not mistaken Freak was involved in a fire on the dyno back in 2009. I cant remember the cause.
If Freak were a person, it's name would be Mark Martin.
Andy Hillenburg still names his chassis.... In the shop right now we have,
Pumpkin
Joe
Leonardo
Champ
Rusty
Pinky Tuscadero
Yoda(Died as the 10 car at Talladega at this years ARCA race)
Tiger
and Abe
I think naming chassis is so cool, noone does it anymore.
Even though my dad races dirt we still name are cars most of them most of his late Models where called Dorothy we had like four. One was Castiel. There were other names bit I can't remember them.
Christopher Winter You should google Sebastian Vettels car names.. they’re great
I name my race cars
My 1st one was
Rookie
2nd car
Ole Lux
Current is
Flash
all Chevy Cavaliers
Damn love hillenburg great wheelman
Hey nascarman!
You should do a review on the 2006 Dollar General 300 (October 13, 2006...it was Friday the 13th!).
That race contained all of the following:
- An exciting finish!!
- Big crashes!
- Underdog winner
- Michael Freakin' Waltrip finishing 2nd!
- Stacey Compton finished 3rd!
- Leader Jinxes!
- Scoring Loop errors!
- Danny O'Quinn, Jr.finishing 5th! (Never heard of him? Me neither!)
- Virtually nobody on the lead lap! (5 cars)
- Champion (mathematically) determined!
- Probably the first time Brad Keselowski's name was ever mentioned in a race!
- Casey Mears' last Busch Race in the Texaco/Havoline Dodge
And much more!
I went to the Cup race at Charlotte the next day. I remember watching that Busch race from a hotel room near the track and trying to listen if I could hear the cars outside.
@@nascarmanHistory I watched most of it on TV. It's a race that's many people seem to have forgotten.
Freak found out it was now a Chevrolet and wasnt gonna stand for that. RIP Freak.
snappy452 it might come back as a FORD
Yeah, it was at the front this time and took somebody else wrecking it.....
@@keviningram8911 DO IT
snappy452 just might
You should do a video on Robert Pressley, he’s my good family friend for many decades, neighbor, and boss. I’d love to see a video on his journey throughout the years from someone else’s view
Thank you Nascar man!!! We need more.........
EDUCATIONAL Nascar vids like this.
And in the distance, you can almost hear 'Amazing Grace' being played on bagpipes. You will not be forgotten Freak!
I never knew that a racecar could be as interesting as the person that drives it. I know some people make fun of NASCAR, saying that "It's just driving in circles." but these are the types of things that make racing interesting.
One of the best videos I’ve seen in a while. More like this, PLEASE!
My dads had the same shovel passed on from his dad 80 years ago, it’s on its 4th hand and 3rd head but it’s sure is a good old shovel
Lol.
Justin Haley killed FREAK!! 😭
The ghost of FREAK will now haunt him throughout his career.
I do remember the chassis being pointed out at Dega,, didn't know it had such a storied career. GREAT VIDEO 👍👌🏁🏁
You mean Chris Fontaine killed Freak, lol. He's the one who turned down into Haley and wrecked himself.
Haley should be fired for destroying freak
Good story my man . Huge NASCAR fan and I even was on speed channel in 2009 on NASCAR trivia and won and I I'm shocked I never knew about this truck. God bless you my man !!! And LINE UM UP AND LET'S GO RACING
If there are any other stories like this, I'd love to see a video on them! This was pretty cool!
I'm not crying, you are😭
*RIP*
Best video on your channel I’ve seen so far that’s awesome
If Jr doesn't want Freak then it should go into the Nascar Hall of Fame. Accompanied by this video, what a great representative of the Truck Series and it's long legacy.
I'm not emotionally attached to a chassis *cries when it died*
The truck should be restored & placed in a racing museum somewhere not in Jr's graveyard or where-ever the hell it is now...
Well, you never forget a good car.
Put that truck in the NASCAR Hall of Fame
This thing should go to the hall of fame!!
I have never felt sorry for a truck chassis. But this video did! Keep making videos like this.
2008: Headline: “Car has sex-change”
If only everyone knew how far down cup chassis really trickled... there are cup cars running local dirt tracks at far older than 20.
Thanks Nascarman and Brock!
That was an awesome video. Great stuff. Subscribed.
I've never heard of Freak, but after watching this video, I think at a minimum Freak should be on the $1 bill.
Fantastic video, I have always been fascinated by the history of chassis of all race series. I remember Jayski's Nascar site used to contain history, some with very interesting facts of various cars such as Clint Bowyer's 2012 Fall Richmond Winner, which was the same chassis that got wrecked by Jeff Gordon at the Fall Phoenix Race in 2012 and Dale Jr's wrecked 2014 Bristol Night Race chassis in his graveyard originally debuted at the same race 2 years prior. Please do more videos like this, it would be interesting to know the longevity of some of the COT chassis cars in the Xfinity series, I think there may be some interesting stories there. I know Mike Harmon's Dodge Challenger that finished up last year was from 2010, maybe there are some older than that currently in the field?
Freak: “I am immortal.”
Fontaine: “Hold my beer!”
They should've gotten sponsorship from Jimmy John's. Freaky Fast.
someone rebuild this truck NOW
the freak was a tough truck should have been rebuilding sent to the Hall of Fame
IndyCar had one with Jerry Karl's McLaren chassis which saw use between 1973 and 1981. It even saw homemade ground effects and bodywork by the late 70s.
Gotta love those 2gen rams grill 😩
Pretty cool to be at Freak’s final race.
Gotta respect that they kept using it after all those crashes, always respect someone who rebuilds something once it is destroyed just to put it back into doing what it did before
Rip Freak. You were an inspiration
Back to visit my favorite video
What a Fantastic Video!!
Becomes a Chevy: immediately totals
Guess even chassis’ have manufacture devotion.
Yep, it was at the front, and somebody else wrecked it...
Great video!
Awesome! Can you make a video taling about Billy Ballew's trucks?
Do a video on Rusty Wallace's car "Midnight".
Was that the car they used for the legendary no pit stop race at Martinvile in the 1990's that caused NASCAR to implement Fuel Cells at short tracks so racers could not win due to a no pit stop race by stretching fuel mileage to the max?
That car should be in the Museum at Daytona
Wow this was an amazing film, I had never heard of it but i think this story needs to be better known
Some chassis' do live on for years after they race in Cup, or Xfinity in the ARCA series or some still remain in Late Model form. I dont know about 20 years later and of course not in the same series.
Interesting note I found while looking up just how often Chris wrecked - his first three starts in the truck series in 2005 was in the #4 BHR Truck.
Wow, good find! The particular chassis Fontaine drove in all three races in 2005 was Beavis. Hamilton won with Beavis at Darlington in 2003 and Atlanta in 2004.
nascarman History that’s awesome! Great research (as always)
R.I.P FREAK
1998 - 2018
Gone but not forgotten, you legend.
This truck feels like a person
when you said "slim shady" eminems "im back" started playing in my head lol
What a sad anime death RIP Freak
It's among the top 10 saddest Anime deaths of all time
Freak isnt dead yet
@@HJZ75driver Really? Wow...
So I guess we can say it's just taking a break.
20 years and 14 crashes. Freakish indeed.
Can you do a video on the history of Riverhead raceway and / or the history of racing on long island?
This was a great video on the history of a historic chassis..
That ending made me sad.
Welp guess I subbed now this was a great video
My asphalt pro truck they are fiberglass truck bodies from ARP on a limited latemodel chassis but built for truck class was built in 1997 and ran in thousands of races never wrecked won hundreds of races and tons of series championships I got it in 2016 and it's still racing to this day running up front and way older then half the kids that race with us and this truck has a big 500 horsepower v8 in it too it's a Chevrolet motor
RIP Freak. A true legend
You never see this in Formula 1. Imagine if the Williams F1 team brought out the 1990 FW13B in the upcoming race in Cota few weeks from now. This is why Nascar is so special to me
TFW you're not rooting for the driver or the team, but the chassis. 😂
R.I.P. Bobby Hamilton
That chassis should go into the Hall of Fame. It is worthy.
Should be put in the hall of fame, awesome story
That truck is 2 years older than me, and I watched it crash out for the final time live at Talladega last year. Happy I could be there in person for its last race :(
Arca is interesting when you think about the cars in that series especially the gen 4 are from a different time when nascar was the most popular American sport
Needs to go to the hall of fame!
As u go through it’s history u see less and less people in the stands
This is a freak of video... it’s always recommend to me....
Thanks for the info!
Amazing. Still don't understand how none of the previous wrecks totaled it though (especially at Talladega 2011 and 2017)
Front clips on the jig. As long as the suspension components are located in the correct location and the center section deemed still safe it makes sense to use it at plate races. Unlike short tracks and non plate speedway there isn't a huge concern with the way the suspension travels. On plate races other than the bumps your not too overly concerned with how the frontend travels because for the most part the truck or car is pinned down all the way around the track at speed there is of course some difference between the straightaway and corners because the banking at 180+ mph will make the chassis squish down more.
Center section was never hurt. They had the measurements of the front clip and kept replicating it over and over.
F: For "Freak" and to pay respect
This video needs to blow up
And act like it dont know nobody
One of the more unique stories in all of Motorsports. I vote Freak into the Hall of Fame!
Awww.. that was kinda sad.
The crash that killed it looked eeirely similar to Dale Earnhardt´s crash.
It’s a common way to crash: getting pushed at a 45 degree angle into the wall. Before HANS and SMART barriers, it would either leave you without a scratch or kill you. Now it’s just a DNF.
@@5roundsrapid263 also helps if your seatbelt doesn't break like Dales did.
My dad was a huge Dale Earnhardt and nascar fan, I was 6 when Dale passed away and I remember crying right there alongside my dad. I remember seeing a photo of my grandfather, the man looked eerily like Earnhardt and was a year younger than him when he passed away from cancer. I don’t know for certain if that’s why my dad connected and loved Earnhardt or not, what I do know is he still has several signed memorabilia from the races he attended.
@@SpudEater I was 15 years old and watching that race. I grew up in the 90s watching those guys like earnhardt and rusty Gordon and labontes and bill Elliot. They were ther personalities that made NASCAR and dale was NASCAR. When dale died so did NASCAR. There's no way NASCAR would be in the state that it is now if dale was alive. He would be on TV every day to say how stupid the chase and playoffs are.
@@hotdogs5265 Dale did not use a racing seat belt but a regular car seat belt, that is why it broke. Dale Never liked the Racing Belts and since they were not mandatory at the time just a seat belt was at the time, it was going to break at those speeds past 150 mph.
I was hoping uncle Chris could bring home in that 2018 dega race after playing heat 3, ah yes innocent 13 year old days