NASCAR driver Daniel Suárez's Daytona race car was scarily charred after bursting into flames

NASCAR driver Daniel Suárez’s Daytona race car was scarily charred after bursting into flames

Daniel Suárez’s night at Daytona International Speedway ended a lot earlier than he hoped after his race car burst into flames. But thankfully, the No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet driver is OK.

Not even a quarter of the way into the 160-lap Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona, Suárez’s caught fire on pit road, and at one point, the whole rear of the car was engulfed in flames. The fire was the result of exhaust from Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota coming out of the pits from behind the 99, according to NASCAR.

The fire obviously forced Suárez to return to pit road, and after just 37 laps, the Trackhouse Racing driver’s race was over. There’s no real way to carry on racing when your car is this charred and damaged — even though Suárez definitely wanted to.

Here’s a look at what happened during both of Suárez’s pit stops. Definitely a scary moment.

Again, Suárez is thankfully OK, and he explained what happened from his perspective.

He said he could see the smoke and feel the heat, but he couldn’t see the fire. He didn’t know how big it was and initially hoped he could stay in the car during repairs.

He told reporters afterward:

“Every single time that we do pit stops, we drop a little fuel; that’s completely normal. Unfortunately, when [Hamlin] was leaving, he stopped right behind me because he was waiting for me to leave. And his exhaust fired up the little fuel I dropped and as I was still parked there, that [got] into the back of my car where the fuel cell is. …

“Really unfortunate situation, to be honest. Honestly I don’t know what we could have done different, but just a little bit sad that we’re out of the race this way so early. But I’m glad I’m fine and the entire team was fine.”

Suárez added: “I was fine. I wanted to keep running.” Then, he realized the magnitude of the damage after seeing the top of the car on fire.