#4-Kevin Harvick did not finish the Cook Out Southern 500 NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington Raceway Sunday night after his No. 4 Ford caught fire with 70 laps remaining. He finished the race 33rd.
When interviewed about the incident, he said:
KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Busch Light Ford Mustang – THAT LOOKED LIKE A SCARY FIRE. WHAT LED TO THAT? “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. The car started burning and as it burned the flames started coming through the dash. I ran a couple laps and then as the flame 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.”
SO IT WASN’T AN ENGINE ISSUE ORIGINALLY? “No, I just stopped. The rocker was on fire for a couple laps. I just stopped because I couldn’t see anymore because the flames were coming through the dash and I couldn’t make myself sit in there and burn up.”
— Transcript Provided by Ford Performance —