Variations on that theme happen more often that you might imagine. Former Comp Eliminator World Champion, Bill Maropulos, broke the center out of a dragster butterfly at the World Finals, one year. He was able to grab the broken hub of the wheel to keep the car pointed in the right direction.
A pal of mine, Don DeVault, had a worse situation occur with his Top Alcohol Dragster, several year ago. The car left the starting line and went into violent tire shake. The steering shaft started whipping around and the coupler at the end of the shaft came unplugged from the splines on the steering box, so Don had no recourse, but to go for the ride. Fortunately, it happened early in the run, but it still did considerable damage to the car.
There were a couple of things I would not do on Brian's car. It was his responsibility to check the chute mount on the rear of the car (although I would always double-check it, myself), and if the chute had to be removed, for any reason, it was his responsibility to re-attach it. And I refused to touch the steering wheel coupler, that was his baby to deal with.
