The transporter for Team Pennzoil crashed while the team was driving back to Atlanta, Georgia after winning the latest round of the WERA National Endurance Series series at Portland International Raceway June 30. According to Team Pennzoil rider Chris “Opie” Caylor, he fell asleep at the wheel of the team’s 2000 Ford F-350 dually truck while towing the team’s 40-foot Country Boy fifth-wheel trailer east on I-84 through Idaho at about 7:00 a.m. local time Monday, July 2. Caylor said that the vehicle ran off the left side of the road from the left lane and “did sort of a double-jump. I’m just glad that the double jump wasn’t over another road or river.”

Team Pennzoil co-owner Mark Edwards had just been convinced to sleep in the truck rather than in the trailer before the crash and was uninjured. Caylor, Steve Grigg, and Jamie Lane escaped with minor injuries. Grigg, who signed on to ride at Portland in place of injured team regular Wade Buffington, bruised his back from impacting the roof of the truck, and Lane may have re-broken a hand that he injured earlier this season, Caylor said. Caylor added that he may have aggravated the ligaments that he strained in his shoulder from crashing in the endurance race at Virginia International Raceway June 16. The team’s Ford suffered $15,000 in damage and the crash totaled the trailer, but most of Team Pennzoil’s bikes and equipment escaped without damage.

Caylor said that the Ford will be covered by insurance, and that he will use the Suzuki contingency money that he earned by winning the WERA 600cc Superstock race on Sunday at Portland to pay the deductible. Caylor did not know the insurance status of the team’s trailer but said, “We may show up at Summit Point (the next round of the WERA National Endurance series) with our stuff in the back of pick-up trucks.” Caylor also said that he will do everything he can to pay for out-of-pocket expenses incurred by the team due to the crash.

All four of the Team Pennzoil members flew home from Idaho to Atlanta. Lane then took a bus back to his home in Jonesboro, Arkansas.