NASCAR VP of Competition Elton Sawyer explains fire in Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s car at Bristol

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was legitimately on fire during his return to the Xfinity Series at Bristol on Friday, and NASCAR is doing what they can to make sure a similar incident doesn’t happen again.

Thankfully, the longtime NASCAR figure escaped unharmed, only a little disappointed that his run, which was going so well, had to come to a premature end.

Now, NASCAR VP of Competition, Elliot Sawyer, is looking into things. NASCAR asked Earnhardt if they could hold on to his fire suit and try to learn what they could from his car as to why the fire started, and Sawyer revealed some of their preliminary findings on Tuesday.

“To the incident, I believe it was an electrical fire, as we kind of dove into it,” Sawyer explained, via NASCAR’s YouTube channel. “Our safety folks have asked Dale to provide us with his fire suit. We’ll take a deeper dive into that. Just to make sure everything worked as it should have, and if there’s any learnings from the fiber, the device certification, any of that type of stuff as we move forward.

“But fortunately, he got out of the car and to my knowledge, just some burns to the fire suit, and I don’t believe it got to his actual skin on that one.”

It’s fantastic that Earnhardt Jr. ended up being unharmed, and NASCAR can learn a thing or two from the incident moving forward. It makes for an interesting story, even if it was more than disappointing to see Earnhardt Jr.’s night end the way it did.

When he’s on the track, it’s a treat. Fans came out in support of the formerly long reigning winner of NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver Award, and his time on the circuit was cut short.

However, Earnhardt Jr. made headlines following the event when he revealed he’s thinking about adding some more races to his schedule, focusing on the tracks he loves moving forward.

“The last couple of races had me wondering ‘Damn, do I need to not do this anymore. I’m really not getting nothing out of running 15th and struggling and being frustrated,’” via Sportsnaut. “Then you go run good, ‘OK, maybe it’s where I’m racing. Maybe I just need to run at certain tracks I love.’”

As long as fire stays out of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s path, fans and NASCAR alike would love to see that come to fruition.