Kevin Harvick Calls For NASCAR Review After Daniel Suarez’s Horrifying Daytona Fire

In the recent NASCAR race at Daytona that saw Harrison Burton clinching a spot in the playoffs by securing the win, Daniel Suarez experienced a horrific incident when his No. 99 car burst into flames.

This frightening episode commenced when Denny Hamlin stopped unexpectedly, causing a trail of fuel that ignited the fire engulfing Suarez’s car. Miraculously, Suarez escaped unscathed.

The incident has reignited concerns about fire safety in NASCAR vehicles. Kevin Harvick, a veteran in the racing community, articulated these apprehensions on his podcast, “Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour.”

“We’ve seen a lot of these cars catch on fire, and I think that some of the fire retardant of the body panels and a lot of the panels inside the car probably should be looked at with everything that happened in this particular situation. I don’t know that that should end a car’s race.”

Harvick recounted past incidents where insufficient fire safety measures led to detrimental outcomes. He referenced an event involving non-retardant foam in car doors that resulted in multiple vehicles burning.

Furthermore, Harvick suggested that NASCAR’s Research and Development teams should initiate a comprehensive review of the materials used in race cars. He added:

“So it’s a very unique situation, which is how we get to a lot of these scenarios of learning. And I think that this is definitely something that we need to learn from.

“We didn’t learn from the foam in the doors and the heat shields and there was no fire retardant on the foam that was in the doors, and we just let five or six cars burn up and finally I’d had enough.

“And we had the ‘crappy ass parts’ comment when it happened at Darlington and ended my race.

“They had worked on it a little bit, but from that point forward they worked on it a lot more and have solved those issues since.

“So I would just question how long some of that stuff will actually burn and what the fire retardant of the body panels and things are and what that is. As we’ve seen the mudflaps catch on fire in the past from burnouts.

“I think everybody would want to see the burn rate as to what those, the flashpoint is for a lot of those panels and pieces that caught on fire, because that shouldn’t happen.”

NASCAR Cup Series: Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway Results

1. Harrison Burton – 20 | Running
2. Kyle Busch – 11 | Running
3. Christopher Bell – 27 | Running
4. Cody Ware – 33 | Running
5. Ty Gibbs – 26 | Running
6. Bubba Wallace – 18 | Running
7. Parker Retzlaff – 29 | Running
8. Brad Keselowski – 12 | Running
9. Daniel Hemric – 28 | Running
10. Chris Buescher – 13 | Running
11. Carson Hocevar – 37 | Running
12. Ross Chastain – 24 | Running
13. Zane Smith – 30 | Running
14. Chase Briscoe – 6 | Running
15. John H. Nemechek – 31 | Running
16. Alex Bowman – 21 | Running
17. Erik Jones – 40 | Running
18. Austin Cindric – 8 | Running
19. BJ McLeod – 38 | Running
20. Joey Gase – 39 | Running
21. Kyle Larson – 9 | Running
22. Austin Dillon – 16 | Running
23. Todd Gilliland – 2 | Running
24. Martin Truex Jr – 17 | Running
25. Austin Hill – 23 | Accident
26. Josh Berry – 5 | Accident
27. William Byron – 7 | Accident
28. Tyler Reddick – 25 | Accident
29. Ryan Blaney – 14 | Accident
30. Michael McDowell – 1 | Accident
31. Joey Logano – 3 | Accident
32. Justin Haley – 36 | Accident
33. Ricky Stenhouse Jr – 35 | Accident
34. Corey LaJoie – 34 | Running
35. Shane Van Gisbergen – 32 | Engine
36. Chase Elliott – 10 | Accident
37. Noah Gragson – 15 | Accident
38. Denny Hamlin – 19 | Accident
39. Ryan Preece – 4 | DVP
40. Daniel Suárez – 22 | Fire