There’s an old saying that goes something along the lines of “the definition of minor surgery is a surgery that’s not happening to you.”
Well, it might not have looked like much, but Dale Earnhardt Jr. was involved in what appeared to be a minor car fire during Friday night’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway. The NASCAR Hall of Famer, who was making a rare Xfinity start, had to be pulled from his smoky cockpit in the pits.
Earnhardt was racing with the leaders until smoke in the cockpit and heat in the shifter tunnel column forced him into the pits with 30 laps left in the Food City 300 Playoff race that was eventually won by Justin Allgaier.
“The shifter tunnel column was on fire,” Earnhardt said. “I saw some smoke in the car, and I felt that I was like, ‘Hopefully that’s not me,’ but it was. That last lap, I saw a big fireball down in the tunnel of the car and I felt it.
“Obviously, my uniform was burning up. I was like, ‘I can’t keep going. I got to stop.’ And usually when you stop the fire gets bigger.
“So I pulled over by the pit stall and some of the guys were pretty alert, and they helped me out. We were going to finish with a top 10, maybe top five. We had a shot at winning it, if the car was going to run good at the end.”
Earnhardt was making his first and only start of the season. He’s started one Xfinity Series race per year since his retirement from full-time Cup racing in 2017. This was also his first start at Bristol since 2017.
As for the race itself:
NASCAR Xfinity Series Race – Food City 300
Bristol Motor Speedway
Friday, September 15, 2023
1. (10) Justin Allgaier (P), Chevrolet, 300.
2. (5) Daniel Hemric (P), Chevrolet, 300.
3. (3) John Hunter Nemechek (P), Toyota, 300.
4. (1) Cole Custer (P), Ford, 300.
5. (4) Chandler Smith # (P), Chevrolet, 300.
6. (7) Ryan Sieg, Ford, 300.
7. (12) Trevor Bayne (P), Toyota, 300.
8. (16) Riley Herbst, Ford, 300.
9. (6) Sammy Smith # (P), Toyota, 300.
10. (31) Kaz Grala, Toyota, 300.
11. (21) Sheldon Creed (P), Chevrolet, 300.
12. (18) Derek Kraus, Chevrolet, 300.
13. (38) Jeb Burton (P), Chevrolet, 300.
14. (29) Connor Mosack, Toyota, 300.
15. (14) Parker Retzlaff #, Chevrolet, 299.
16. (36) Brett Moffitt, Ford, 299.
17. (25) Rajah Caruth(i), Chevrolet, 298.
18. (22) Ryan Ellis, Chevrolet, 298.
19. (35) Stefan Parsons, Chevrolet, 298.
20. (20) Josh Williams, Chevrolet, 298.
21. (27) Kyle Sieg, Ford, 298.
22. (28) Brennan Poole, Chevrolet, 297.
23. (30) Kyle Weatherman, Chevrolet, 297.
24. (9) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 297.
25. (32) Anthony Alfredo, Chevrolet, 296.
26. (19) Joe Graf Jr., Ford, 295.
27. (24) Josh Bilicki, Chevrolet, 294.
28. (33) Blaine Perkins #, Chevrolet, 294.
29. (23) Chad Finchum, Ford, 276.
30. (15) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, Ignition, 271.
31. (13) Parker Kligerman (P), Chevrolet, 246.
32. (17) Jeffrey Earnhardt, Chevrolet, Brakes, 229.
33. (26) Austin Hill (P), Chevrolet, DVP, 217.
34. (8) Brandon Jones, Chevrolet, Suspension, 178.
35. (11) Sam Mayer (P), Chevrolet, Accident, 166.
36. (2) Josh Berry (P), Chevrolet, Accident, 166.
37. (37) BJ McLeod, Chevrolet, Power Steering, 117.
38. (34) Timmy Hill(i), Toyota, Rear Gear, 81.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 85.521 mph.
Time of Race: 1 Hrs, 52 Mins, 11 Secs. Margin of Victory: 1.695 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 6 for 48 laps.
Lead Changes: 8 among 5 drivers.
Lap Leaders: C. Custer (P) 1-108;J. Allgaier (P) 109-173;D. Earnhardt Jr. 174-220;C. Custer (P) 221;J. Allgaier (P) 222-253;D. Hemric (P) 254-256;J. Nemechek (P) 257;D. Hemric (P) 258-287;J. Allgaier (P) 288-300.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Justin Allgaier (P) 3 times for 110 laps; Cole Custer (P) 2 times for 109 laps; Dale Earnhardt Jr. 1 time for 47 laps; Daniel Hemric (P) 2 times for 33 laps; John Hunter Nemechek (P) 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 00,7,9,20,19,16,48,1,88,18
Stage #2 Top Ten: 7,00,21,88,19,20,10,98,16,45
Mike Pryson covered auto racing for the Jackson (Mich.) Citizen Patriot and MLive Media Group from 1991 until joining Autoweek in 2011. He won several Michigan Associated Press and national Associated Press Sports Editors awards for auto racing coverage and was named the 2000 Michigan Auto Racing Fan Club’s Michigan Motorsports Writer of the Year. A Michigan native, Mike spent three years after college working in southwest Florida before realizing that the land of Disney and endless summer was no match for the challenge of freezing rain, potholes and long, cold winters in the Motor City.
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