Dale Earnhardt Jr. explains what happened when his car caught fire

For most of last Friday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Bristol, Dale Earnhardt Jr. enjoyed a pretty good run. But his night under the lights turned hectic when smoke started filling his car near the end of the race.

Earnhardt drove down pit road with 30 laps remaining, ending his night prematurely because of the smoke. Following the race, the veteran driver — who now only races part time — explained what happened.

“So it started smoking, and I thought — Well, I started smelling something first. I though, ‘Man, maybe that’s the car in front of me, hopefully it’s the car in front of me. Then I started seeing a lot of smoke around the dash and above the dash,” Earnhardt said.

“I thought we just had some rubber build-up on the pipes. I was telling the team about it so maybe they could see through the wheels, maybe they could see a fire in there. … And then it was getting worse. The smoke was getting worse. I had them boys racing for the lead right in front of me, and I looked down at the leg brace and it was on fire. And I felt this sting in my leg. I thought, ‘Well, I can’t keep going.’

“If I would have kept going, it would’ve burnt me pretty bad. I don’t know if it would’ve went out, but I wasn’t willing to take that risk.”