On Friday night, September 15, NASCAR fans as well as Dale Earnhardt Jr. were given quite a scare when the popular racecar driver was forced to end the race early during the Food City 300. Earnhardt Jr.’s car was seen catching fire with only 29 laps to go in the race, which led to him being helped out of his vehicle.
The fire caught his uniform and caused him quite the burn, but luckily no one was seriously injured.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be on this particular night for the legendary NASCAR driver.
During the 29th lap of the race, smoke began coming from his car which eventually led to a fire that burned his uniform and caused him to have to pull into pitstall and exit quickly with assistance from those nearby.
Before this unfortunate incident occurred though, Dale was actually leading in points and looked like he had a shot at winning if all went well – making this ending even more devastating for both himself and his many fans in attendance that evening.
In spite of Dale’s premature departure from the track, another driver would ultimately take home victory on this night: Justin Allgaier who ended up taking first place after punching his ticket into the next round of Xfinity playoffs.
As for Earnhardt, he sadly placed 30th after this frightening ordeal but still made sure not ruin anyone else’s night by leaving prematurely. He summed up his time on Bristol Motor Speedway saying “I had fun.”
Though it wasn’t exactly how anyone wanted things to go down on Friday evening at Bristol Motor Speedway, thankfully no one was seriously injured thanks to quick action.
