“If I kept going, it’d have burned me”: Dale Earnhardt Jr. gives an update after his car caught fire in the Bristol Xfinity race  

NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr. has said that he had to switch off the car as if he had continued he might have burned himself pretty bad after his fiery end to the Bristol Xfinity race.

Making his first race start of the season in the Xfinity series, the NASCAR Hall of Famer started the race from P15. Earnhardt Jr. showed that he had not lost any of his wily race craft as he moved into the Top 10 after a stunning start and eventually found himself in the Top 5.

After the restarst post the caution, Dale Earnhardt Jr. took adavantage of the rest of the grid pitting and moved forward in the race. However, running in the top 5, he had to pull off the track as his car was on fire. His race was over just 30 laps short of the finish, finishing 30th after leading 47 laps.

Speaking with NBC, Dale Earnhardt Jr. said:

"We got a hole in my pants. Somehow or another, the shifter tunnel column caught on fire. I saw some smoke in the car and I smelled it and I was like, ‘hopefully that's not me,’ but it was. That last lap I saw a big fireball down in the tunnel of the car and I felt it.

"Obviously, my uniform was burning up. I was like, ‘I can't keep going. I got to stop.’ And usually when you stop, the fire gets bigger. I looked down at the leg brace and it was on fire. I felt it stinging my leg. So I thought, ‘Well, I can’t keep going.’ If I kept going, I think it would have burned me really bad.”

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. rues an incredible result on his first race start

The NASCAR icon stated that he was a bit disappointed with the result as he claimed that he could finished the race in the Top 5.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said:

"We were going to finish with a top ten, maybe top five. We had a shot at winning it if the car was going to run good at the end. Trying not to mess nobody's night up at the same time, but I had fun.”