Harvick spent the first part of Sunday’s race at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway recovering from a bad first pit stop but eventually made his way into the top-10 in Stage 3.
But on Lap 276, fire erupted out of both sides of the underside of Harvick’s No. 4 Ford which forced Harvick to bring it to a stop at the bottom of Turn 1. Harvick safely exited the vehicle which quickly became engulfed by smoke and fire.
Harvick had not experienced any issues with his engine prior to the fire nor had suffered any damage to the car during the race.
The incident brought an end to Harvick’s race and left him last in the 16-driver playoff standings with two races remaining in the first round. He sits 13 points below the cutoff line.
Asked what he thought led to the issue, Harvick pulled no punches.
“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.”
During the caution for Harvick’s car, J.J. Yeley’s Ford also caught fire under the right-front.
The fires on Harvick’s and Yeley’s cars are the fourth and fifth that appear to originate in the car’s exhaust system. All of the cars involved have been Fords.
Following the fired suffered by Chris Buescher and Joey Logano at the Indy Road Course, NASCAR mandated an exhaust shroud be added to the car.
Harvick’s incident appeared unusual as fire was coming out of both the right and light sides of the car simultaneously.
Harvick was insistent NASCAR would do little to address the issue going forward.
“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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