The NASCAR R&D Center will have more to look at this week. After looking into the causes of Corey Lajoie’s flip last week after Michigan, the sanctioning body has to investigate a fire this week after Daytona.
As Daniel Suarez sat on pit road in the Stage 1 break of the Coca Cola Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona to fill his car full of fuel, his pit crew spilled some on the pit stall. On the tight pit road, Suarez and Hamlin behind him had to navigate around cars in other pit stalls. When Suarez stopped unable to get around Harrison Burton in front of him, he forced Hamlin to stop behind him and the backfire from Hamlin’s pipes ignited the fuel, trailing under the wheel of the No. 99.
Suarez headed out on track, hoping that would extinguish the fire. When it didn’t, he was forced to come back on pit road. As the car slowed in pit entry, though, the fire suddenly grew, igniting the whole rear of the car, with something in the car providing extra fuel for the fire.
Suarez was instructed to get out of his car as his team attacked the flame with extinguishers. As he undid his belts and removed the wheel, an official reached in and pulled the driver out of the car to safety. When the fire was finally put out, the rear of the car was totally destroyed with sheet metal melted.
“I was doing my pit stop just like every single weekend. The No. 11 (Denny Hamlin) was right behind me and the No. 21 (Harrison Burton) was right in front of me, so unfortunately I got boxed in. We know that every single time we do a pit stop, we drop a little bit of fuel and that’s completely normal,” Suarez described
“Unfortunately, the No. 11 was leaving his pit stall right behind me, and because he was waiting for me to leave, his exhaust fired up the little fuel I dropped. Because I was still parked there, that went up the back of my car where the fuel cell is and it just grabbed it. It was a very unfortunate situation. I don’t know what we could have done differently. Just sad that we’re out of the race this way, but I’m glad I’m fine and the entire team was fine.”
Suarez explained that, as he left with the car on fire and even when the rear completely ignited, he could see the extent of the issue and had to rely on what his team told him over the radio.
“The other crazy thing is that I was able to feel the heat, but because I don’t run a rearview mirror and only run the rearview camera, I couldn’t see it. The rearview camera is connected to the rear bumper, so I could see the smoke, but I couldn’t see the fire. I could feel the heat, but I couldn’t see how big it was.”
With a fire from Shane van Gisbergen’s car after his engine let go, it looked like a fiery hot night under the lights at Daytona.
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