- Dale Earnhardt Jr. found himself in danger during a race in Bristol on Friday
- He walked away unharmed though he was disappointed not to finish the race
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. was forced to leave his car mid-race on Friday night as the NASCAR legend’s vehicle caught fire.
The 48-year-old was racing in the Xfinity Series (NASCAR’s second tier) in Bristol – and at one point led the pack – before a malfunction in his vehicle forced him to make an untimely exit.
Video from the race shows Earnhardt Jr. telling his crew that there was a fire in his car, and smoke could be seen coming out of the car as well.
The driver then pulled the car over before being helped out by crew members of another team.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. had to be helped out of his car by crew members of another team
Earnhardt Jr. is only an occasional racer in the second-tier Xfinity Series
‘We got a hole in my pants,’ he said afterwards.
‘Somehow or another the shifter tunnel caught on fire. I saw some smoke in the car and I smelt it, and I was like ‘hopefully that’s not me.’ But that last lap I saw a big fireball down in the tunnel in the car, and I felt it obviously, my uniform was burning up. And I was like, ‘I can’t keep going. I gotta stop.’
And usually when you stop the fires get bigger, so I pulled over by the pit stall, and some of them guys were pretty alert and they helped me out.
‘I hate it. We were gonna finish in the top 10, maybe top five, we had a shot of winning it if the car was gonna run good at the end. But, try not to mess nobody’s night up at the same time, so it was hard. But I had fun.’
Earnhardt Jr. last raced in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2017.