Ricky Stenhouse Jr exited the NASCAR race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in a ball of flames
On Sunday, NASCAR raced on The Roval at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The race was a playoff elimination event for the NASCAR Cup Series.
Watch the NASCAR fire video below.
Stage three of the race saw a string of cautions due to various incidents. One of those was for Ricky Stenhouse Jr who went up in a ball of flames.
On a restart with just 13 laps remaining, smoke began to trail the No. 47 driven by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. As he began to slow, the fire grew bigger.
As he came to a stop, you could see fire inside the wall as well as under the car. Black smoke filled the cockpit in a hurry.
“Look at all the fire inside the car,” Jeff Burton stated over the NBC Sports broadcast.
Stenhouse Jr was able to climb out. Adding that he did so rather calmly for someone with large flames riding in their passenger seat.
The AMR safety team was on the scene quickly. They extinguished the flames.
The team stated, “Following his car catching on fire, Stenhouse Jr was treated and released from infield care center.”
The team added, “Tough day at The ROVAL. We are glad our wheelman is okay!”
Charlotte Roval Results: October 8, 2023 (NASCAR Cup Series)
Next Car and fire issues
Stenhouse Jr noted earlier in the race that he was smelling smoke.
In this case, the car had only slight right front damage. In previous incidents, fires were caused due to tire rubber buildup.
As of now, it’s unclear exactly what the cause of this fire was.
“This car just looks like it’s on fire with very little to no damage. … There could be tire rubber in there. You could have had an oil leak. The hot exhaust is in there, there’s a lot of things that it could be,” Steve Letarte stated.
He added, “NASCAR put a lot of work into this last year. If this is another fire in the rocker box, it’s going to be high on the priority list on Monday for the officials.”
Since the launch of the Next Gen car, NASCAR machines have caught fire in a wide range of scenarios. The series has implemented several changes in recent months hoping to reduce occurrences of fires.
After the race at Charlotte, four drivers have been removed from playoff competition.
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