NASCAR Cup Darlington II
NASCAR says it's "unacceptable" for Next Gen cars to catch fire
A NASCAR official on Tuesday said it was “unacceptable” for the Next Gen cars to catch on fire but took issue with Kevin Harvick’s claim the sanctioning body “don’t care.”
Jim Utter
Edited: Sep 7, 2022, 11:13 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
On Lap 276 of 367 in Sunday night’s Southern 500 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, fire erupted first out of the right side of Harvick’s No. 4 Ford and then the left, which forced him to bring the car to a stop at the bottom of Turn 1.
Harvick safely exited the vehicle which quickly became engulfed by smoke and fire. Harvick had not experienced any issues with his engine prior nor suffered any damage to the car prior to the incident.
In an interview afterwards, Harvick blamed the issue on “crappy parts” on the Next Gen car and in reference to action taken by NASCAR to address the problem said, “They don’t care.”
Read Also:
In an interview Tuesday with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Scott Miller, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, disputed Harvick’s assertion.
“Nobody wants to see this happening. I know that was an emotional time and his race was ruined but to say that NASCAR didn’t care is about as far from the truth as you could get,” Miller said. “That’s really all I have to say about that.
“I’m not going to get into any kind of back-and-forth contest with Kevin over the airwaves. I think he actually does know we do care.”
Looking into it
Miller pointed out NASCAR has been working on the issue since it first came to light at the Indy Road Course, when the cars of Chris Buescher and Joey Logano both had fires erupt in the rocker box from crash damage, mostly from under the right side of the cars.
“We’re certainly digging into the cause. We had cars in this morning looking for signs of anything that may have triggered that. We have done so all year,” Miller said. “There’s a lot of rubber at Darlington, you know the cheese grater that we’ve all talked about.
“We’re not certain if rubber getting into the rocker box was the problem (in Harvick’s case) or not. We’re debriefing it all. It’s unacceptable for the cars to catch on fire.”
Following the fires suffered by Buescher, Logano and others by Chase Briscoe and Alex Bowman, NASCAR mandated an exhaust shroud be added to the car, which appeared to help address the problem.
Harvick’s issue seemed unique in that his car had not been damaged and fire had come out of both sides of the car simultaneously.
“We’ve been working on different solutions for different things along the way that seem to maybe are the trigger. And, you know, obviously we still have work to do,” Miller said.
“We’re looking at clearances on particularly the Ford exhaust because they seem to be having more trouble with this than the others. There’s a lot of work going on, a lot of collaboration within the industry to get to the bottom of it. We have to get to the bottom of it quick, obviously.”
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Logano: Darlington a "missed opportunity" despite strong result
Next article Chase Elliott: "Nothing I can do about" bad playoff start
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Jim Utter
Erik Jones agrees to multi-year contract extension with Legacy Motor Club
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Erik Jones agrees to multi-year contract extension with Legacy Motor Club
Goodyear's option tires at Richmond "were like Mario Kart with a star"
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Richmond II
Goodyear's option tires at Richmond "were like Mario Kart with a star"
NASCAR: Austin Dillon move was "really close to crossing the line"
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Richmond II
NASCAR: Austin Dillon move was "really close to crossing the line"
Latest news
Carson Hocevar says Zane Smith feud is "pretty one-sided"
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Talladega II
Carson Hocevar says Zane Smith feud is "pretty one-sided"
Jack Miller says Australian GP cancellation “tough to swallow”: “It is pissing me off”
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Australian GP
28 min
Jack Miller says Australian GP cancellation “tough to swallow”: “It is pissing me off”
Max Verstappen reacts to COTA boss: "He can drive my car, after five laps he won't be able to walk"
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
42 min
Max Verstappen reacts to COTA boss: "He can drive my car, after five laps he won't be able to walk"
Sammy Smith just pulled off a rare Talladega feat not seen in over twenty years
NASCAR O'Reilly
NOAP NASCAR O'Reilly
Talladega II
1 h
Sammy Smith just pulled off a rare Talladega feat not seen in over twenty years
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe