UPDATE: NASCAR has implemented a rule change, effective this weekend at Kansas. The intention is to prevent rubber buildup on the cars and decrease the likelihood of fire.
ORIGINAL POST 9-6-2022: NASCAR is continuing to investigate the cause of — and solution for — a fire under the hood of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford in Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition Scott Miller told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that “it’s all hands on deck” as NASCAR works with Cup Series teams and manufacturers to diagnose the mechanical failure and ensure it won’t be an issue in the maiden NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs for the Next Gen car that debuted this season.
“We’re certainly digging into the cause,” Miller said Tuesday morning. “We have cars down (at NASCAR’s R&D Center) this morning looking for any signs of anything that may have triggered that. And you know, we have done so all year. I mean, there’s a lot of rubber at Darlington, the ‘cheese grater’ that we always talk about, so we’re not certain if rubber getting into the rocker box was the problem or not, but we’re debriefing it all.
” … It’s unacceptable for the cars to catch on fire and we’ve been working on different solutions for different problems, different things along the way that seem to maybe be the trigger and obviously we still have work to do.”
— NASCAR.com —