Time after time, certain incidents occur in NASCAR that remind everyone of the dangers associated with the sport. This was also the case during Saturday’s O’Reilly race at Bristol, which saw a driver trapped inside a car on fire, having to be rescued.

Mason Maggio felt perfectly fine despite the scary fire incident

At the start of stage 3, Mason Maggio found himself engulfed in flames. Fortunately, he was helped by NASCAR officials as he escaped unhurt in time.

Following the race, he opened up on the incident. When asked about the first time he felt there were sparks inside the engine of his car, Maggio said, “Probably when my spotter said it, and then I looked in the rearview mirror and lo and behold it was on fire. So at that point I just had to jump out and try to get out of there.

“So I appreciate the NASCAR medical team and one of the crew members that I think was on the 87 crew that pulled me out I really appreciate that. That was definitely a frightening moment, whether it’s your first time or your 100th time catching on fire in a car. Its never fun, but appreciate everybody. Appreciate the safety team for getting me out of there, so we made it this way.”

He claimed that he was so focused on escaping from the car that he couldn’t focus on how close he was to it. But Maggio knew that the fire was behind him and not anywhere near him. Because of that, he didn’t inhale any smoke and felt ‘perfectly fine’ in the aftermath of the incident. Having said that, he claimed he has to remain hydrated and drink a lot of water to get it out of his system.

Maggio added that for his whole career, he hadn’t been caught in a fire. But Bristol changed it as he rued the lost potential of what could’ve been a promising finish for the #91 team.

The NASCAR race that witnessed a fire incident for the ages

Over the years, there have been some unfortunate incidents involving fire during a NASCAR race. But arguably none is more famous than the one from the 2012 Daytona 500 when Juan Pablo Montoya hit a jet dryer and his car burst into flames.

This led to a lot of fuel being spilled on the track and the race being delayed. Interestingly, the race was already delayed by a day because of rain. And when Montoya’s car caught on fire, there were only 40 laps left in the race.

The nature of the incident baffled a lot of people, including Mike Helton. “About the time you think you’ve seen about everything, you see something like this,” the former NASCAR president said.

Montoya, the driver who was directly involved in the incident, claimed he had hit a lot of things in his racing career but never a jet dryer.

But importantly, Montoya escaped without any injuries, much like the recent incident during Saturday’s NASCAR race at Bristol involving Mason Maggio.

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