BRISTOL, Tenn. — A massive fire erupted under an O'Reilly Auto Parts Series car on Saturday night, forcing safety crew members to rush into action.
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The incident occurred as Mason Maggio circled Bristol Motor Speedway during the final stage of the race. He suddenly pulled to the bottom of the track on Lap 194 as smoke billowed from under his No. 91 DGM Racing Chevrolet. It appeared that his engine had just suddenly expired.
As Maggio began to pull into the garage area, flames began shooting from under his Chevrolet. The team told him to stop and exit the car. He quickly pulled to a stop in front of the media center at the Tennessee short track as safety crew members rushed into action.
Scary moment for @MasonMaggio1 as his car becomes engulfed in flames. pic.twitter.com/v45Zaw8xBl
— The CW Sports (@TheCW_Sports) April 12, 2026
A member of Justin Allgaier's team also helped drag Maggio from the burning car as crew members used extinguishers to put out the fire. Meanwhile, some random fan stood in the way while trying to capture content on his phone.
Once Maggio took off his safety equipment, he turned to the cameras and gave a thumbs up to let everyone know that he was fine.
"Yeah, I'm all good," Maggio told CW Sports. "I knew there was going to be sparks under the lights here at Bristol. I just didn't expect my car to ignite it.
"Just a shame. We were doing ok. We were hoping for a better day. It was weird. I just saw the oil pressure suddenly drop out of nowhere on that last restart and then lo and behold, I was in smoke. I mean, we just lost the motor at that point. I didn't expect it to go up in flames like that."
This fire brought out the red flag as crews worked to clean the track and the garage area. They cleaned up the fluid from the expired engine that landed on the racing surface. They also spent extensive time cleaning up the remnants of the fire in the garage area.
