{"id":111499,"date":"2025-09-01T09:03:32","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T09:03:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/111499\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T09:03:32","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T09:03:32","slug":"nascar-car-bursts-into-flames-and-does-chase-elliott-a-huge-favor-motorsport-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/111499\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR car bursts into flames and does Chase Elliott a huge favor – Motorsport – Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

Derek Kraus unintentionally provided Chase Elliott<\/a> a timely boost after his car burst into flames during NASCAR<\/a> Cup Series playoff opener.<\/p>\n

Despite displaying his laser focus from the outset of the Cook Out Southern 500<\/a>, Elliott still found himself stuck in the middle of the pack while sharing several tense encounters with Carson Hocevar<\/a>. But the No. 9 Chevrolet driver received a lifeline with 54 laps remaining courtesy of a caution flag that stemmed from Kraus.<\/p>\n

On Lap 313, a large plume of smoke and high-rising flames began billowing from under the hood of the No. 44 Chevrolet shortly after Kraus complained of overall electrical problems with his car. “I can’t see the voltage. There’s nothing. Nothing at all,” he said over the team radio.<\/p>\n

Kraus swiftly brought his vehicle to a stop in Turn 2 and rushed to safety. Terrifying footage obtained by the onboard camera captured the fire continuing to grow as the front end and cockpit became engulfed in a thick cloud of gray smoke.<\/p>\n

A yellow flag was waved as Kraus\u2019 car fire was put out, thereby providing Elliott with a free pass and chance to cycle back onto the lead lap. At the time of the incident, he was running 22nd after qualifying in 21st.<\/p>\n

It had been a tough day for Elliott after an earlier caution ruined their strategy call. A loose lug also caused a long stop, but the free pass helped him to at least recover to a 17th place finish.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a really long night,\u201d he conceded on USA Network. \u201cYeah, we had clawed our way up to the top 10 and tried to run really long on that one run. Everyone was being real aggressive with short-pitting so we tried to run long.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then yeah, as soon as we did that, the caution came out. It was honestly laughable at that juncture. Just came in and had an issue on pit road, had to put our heads down and grind out a top-last. Just keep pushing at it. It\u2019s been a long night for sure. We\u2019ve got to put our heads together to try to figure out how to be better at Gateway and how to go faster.\u201d<\/p>\n

DON’T MISS:<\/p>\n

Speaking ahead of Sunday\u2019s race, Elliott acknowledged that he\u2019s failed to find much success in Darlington. Entering the Cook Out Southern 500, he\u2019d amassed two top-five finishes and four top-10s while never coasting down victory lane in the Next Gen era.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you have to respect each round,\u201d Elliott said. \u201cThis is going to be a tough round. You know, Darlington\u2019s been a tough track for me. We\u2019ve had some good runs here and there, but certainly not very consistent.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd you look at Gateway, I think, as a company, we\u2019ve been kind of off there. Bristol\u2019s been a good track for us, but, you know, that\u2019s only a third of it, right?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Derek Kraus unintentionally provided Chase Elliott a timely boost after his car burst into flames during NASCAR Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,4387,63001,63000,2332,634,8354,82],"class_list":["post-111499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-chase-elliott","tag-cook-out-southern-500","tag-derek-kraus","tag-motorsport-section","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-cup-series","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}