Dale Earnhardt Jr. has a hot time at Bristol, literally, after race car catches fire (watch VIDEO)
Where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire. Dale Earnhardt Jr. will vouch for that axiom.
The NASCAR Hall of Famer and NASCAR on NBC analyst made his first – and likely only – start of the 2023 season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Food City 300 race Friday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Things were going along smoothly and Junior, racing at Bristol – one of his favorite race tracks – for the first time since 2017, was looking at a potential top-5 or top-10 finish, and maybe even a win, with about 30 laps remaining in the event.
Then, all of a sudden, things started getting hot – and they continued getting hotter as smoke quickly began to envelope the cockpit of Earnhardt’s car, followed by a “big fireball” erupting, as Earnhardt explained.
Earnhardt knew he had to get out – and quick.
Fortunately, crew members from John Hunter Nemechek’s team along pit road rushed to the driver’s side of his car and pulled Earnhardt to safety. He appeared to be uninjured, but his firesuit and racing boot were apparently both singed.
"We got a hole in my pants," Earnhardt quipped.
Here’s more of what Junior had to say about the incident:
“The shifter tunnel column was on fire,” Earnhardt said. “I saw some smoke in the car, and I felt that I was like, ‘Hopefully that's not me,’ but it was. That last lap, I saw a big fireball down in the tunnel of the car and I felt it.
“Obviously, my uniform was burning up. I was like, ‘I can't keep going. I got to stop.’ And usually when you stop the fire gets bigger.
“So I pulled over by the pit stall and some of the guys were pretty alert, and they helped me out. We were going to finish with a top 10, maybe top five. We had a shot at winning it, if the car was going to run good at the end.”
Earnhardt ultimately finished 30th, with the cause of his DNF being listed as “ignition.” Justin Allgaier wound up winning the race.