During qualifying this weekend I had a cam gear failure. Engine started to backfire and then out right quit, had to be towed in (first time in a really really long time). Tried to start and got a backfire so knew timing, put the engine at TDC and the rotor was not facing #1, so pulled distributor and the teeth on the gear were messed up, looked at the cam gear (best we could through the block) and it looked pretty chewed up.
So only thing I can think of that would cause this is the cam thrust plate, any one else have thoughts or have seen this before ? I pulled drain plug on engine and lots of metal shavings from cam were on magnet, so pulled engine but have not torn it down yet.
Still have half the season to go here.