Sep
After his car caught on fire in the Southern 500 on Sunday night, Kevin Harvick, who had previously questioned the Next Gen car’s safety, criticized NASCAR.
Harvick had to rebound from a poor first pit stop for the majority of the opening round of the race on Sunday at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, but he finally moved into the top ten.
But on lap 276 fire broke out of the No. 4 Ford’s underneath on both sides, forcing Harvick to stop the car at the bottom of turn one. Harvick managed to safely evacuate the car as it was being quickly consumed by smoke and flames.
Prior to the incident, Harvick’s engine was running perfectly, and the car was undamaged throughout the competition.
With two races left in the first round, the accident ended Harvick’s race and put him last among the 16 drivers in the playoff rankings. He is 13 points short of the cutoff.
Harvick became irritated by the unreliable parts
When questioned what he believed caused the problem, Harvick was blunt.
“I’m sure it’s just crappy parts on the race car like we’ve seen so many times. They haven’t fixed anything. It’s kind of like the safety stuff. We just let it keep going and keep going,” Harvick said.
“The car started burning and as it burned the flames started coming through the dash. I ran a couple laps and then as the flames got bigger it started burning stuff up and I think right there you see all the brake fluid that was probably coming out the brakes and part of the brake line, but the fire was coming through the dash.
“What a disaster for no reason. We didn’t touch the wall. We didn’t touch a car and here we are in the pits with a burned up car and we can’t finish the race during the playoffs because of crappy-ass parts.”
J.J. Yeley’s Ford caught fire underneath the right front while the Harvick caution was in effect.
The bushfires that appear to have started in the car’s exhaust system are the fourth and fifth to occur on cars driven by Harvick and Yeley. All of the cars involved have been Fords.
NASCAR required an exhaust shroud to be added to the car after Chris Buescher and Joey Logano were fired as a result of their accidents at the Indy Road Course.
As flames was flowing from the car’s right and light sides at the same time, Harvick’s incident seemed strange.
With regard to future action, Harvick was adamant that NASCAR will take little action.
“They don’t care,” he said. “It’s cheaper to not fix it. Find someone to run the show who can run it.”
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Kevin Harvick, Grand Prix, IndyCar, Next Gen car, Nascar, NASCAR Cup Series, Darlington
