NASCAR is looking into recent fires during burnout celebrations
We’ve now seen two NASCAR winners catch fire in recent weeks. Both took place during burnout celebration.
Hear from NASCAR below.
In March, Zane Smith drove to the NASCAR Truck Series win at Circuit of the Americas. He celebrated by parking his truck against the inside wall while stomping the throttle.
Following a lengthy burnout, the truck caught fire. The driver climbed from the machine as the safety team came to the scene to extinguish the truck.
NASCAR race winner catches fire during burnout at COTA (Video)
Last weekend, we saw a very similar situation. This time, it happened in the NASCAR Xfinity Series after John Hunter Nemechek won the race at Martinsville Speedway. Once again, the fire occurred as the driver parked against the wall for a burnout.
NASCAR race winner catches fire at Martinsville Speedway (Video)
The similarities are the new wet weather package. For short tracks and road course, the trucks and cars are fitted with windshield wipers as well as mud flaps. It appears that when machines are parked for a burnout, with mudflaps installed, a fire is a likely scenario.
Kyle Larson won Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series event at Martinsville Speedway. He elected to do a burnout around the entire race track, with the mud flaps installed. However, it doesn’t appear to be an issue when the car is in motion.
NASCAR comments on recent fires
How does a car that burns it down get through NASCAR inspection?
“There is some challenges but for the most part, you put another sit of tires on it, you roll it through the heights sticks and you take all that into consideration,” Elton Sawyer stated via Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.
“When you win a National Series race, a Cup, Xfinity or Truck Series race, it’s a big deal. We want to see our drivers celebrate. We want to see them excited, obviously doing that in a manner that is as safe possible.”
“Burnouts have become something, in the last 4-5 years that has been quite popular. We have seen some cases, two recently. One at COTA in the Truck and this past weekend with John Hunter’s car.”
“Both of them were in cases where they pulled right against the wall and basically just burnt it down. Literally, almost.”
“We’ll take a look at that. But, we want those guys to celebrate.”
“On the flip side, we saw Kyle Larson, the burnout on Sunday was great. A full lap and everything still stayed intact. Every situation is a little bit different. We’ll look at that to see if there’s anything we need to do going forward.”
Links
Zane Smith | Circuit of the Americas | John Hunter Nemechek | Martinsville Speedway | NASCAR
