Getty Cole Custer's No. 41 caught on fire at Michigan International Speedway.
Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick had some strong words at Darlington Raceway after his No. 4 Ford Mustang suddenly caught fire. This was the latest incident of the 2022 season, which NASCAR officials continue to examine.
Scott Miller, SVP of Competition, appeared on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on September 6 to address the issue. He said that officials are continuing to dig into the cause and that they have some cars undergoing evaluation. He said that they are specifically trying to find anything that may have triggered the latest fire.
💭 “It’s unacceptable for the cars to catch on fire […] we have to get to the bottom of it quick, obviously.”
🔥 #NASCAR‘s SVP of Competition Scott Miller joined #TMDNASCAR to share what the sanctioning body is doing to combat the problem.
“There’s a lot of rubber at Darlington, you know, the cheese grater we always talked about,” Miller said during his appearance. “So, we’re not certain if rubber getting into the rocker box was the problem or not. We’re debriefing it all.
“It’s unacceptable for the cars to catch on fire, and we’ve been working on different solutions for different things along the way that seem to, maybe are, the trigger. Obviously, we still have work to do.”
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Harvick Had Made Comments About Response Speed
Kevin Harvick’s car bursts into flames! #NASCARPlayoffs
📺 : @USA_Network
Prior to Miller’s appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Harvick made pointed comments about the Next Gen car. He criticized the parts being used and made comments about how NASCAR hasn’t “fixed anything.”
“I’m sure it’s just the crappy parts on the race car like we’ve seen so many times,” Harvick told NBC Sports after his stock car caught on fire. “We haven’t fixed anything. It’s kind of like the safety stuff. We let it keep going and keep going.”
Following his interview with NBC Sports reporter Marty Snider, Harvick made more heated comments to gathered media members. He said that “it’s cheaper to not fix” the problems with fires and hard hits.
“To say that NASCAR didn’t care is about as far from the truth as you could get,” Miller commented on September 6. “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.”
There Are Multiple Examples of Car Fires
GettyNASCAR continues to examine the reasons for the Next Gen fires.
One of the problematic aspects of addressing car fires is that they are not all the same. Multiple vehicles have caught on fire during the 2022 Cup Series season, and they have done so for seemingly different reasons.
The No. 17 of RFK Racing and the No. 22 of Team Penske both caught fire at Indianapolis Motor Speedway after taking damage during the race. Both of those fires appeared to start when the door foam ignited.
The No. 41 of Stewart-Haas Racing also caught on fire at Michigan International Speedway after three flat tires, but NASCAR officials were not entirely certain what caused the problem. The No. 14 of Stewart-Haas Racing caught fire at Richmond, which led to NASCAR making some changes to the exhaust system.
There have been multiple other fires that have created questions during the 2022 season. Harvick’s is the latest example. Though Alex Bowman and Parker Kligerman have also dealt with some unexpected issues.
“The body is forgiving, but the suspension is unforgiving, and then it catches on fire,” Bowman said during playoff media day. “So, trying to avoid that because that is what got us the last Darlington race. It decided to catch on fire on the right front. Hopefully, we can avoid that.”
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NASCAR Continues Focusing on Issue of ‘Unacceptable’ Fires