NASCAR has seen its share of fires over the years, mostly caused by crashes.
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But the sport likely has never seen anything like the fire that occurred in the 2012 Daytona 500, when the trailing arm on Juan Pablo Montoya’s car broke while he was going over 100 mph. Montoya had been in a wreck earlier in the race, and his team replaced the trailing arm then, but somehow the repair did not hold.
Now, a broken trailing arm is not all that unusual, but it was the end result that made international news. Montoya had just left pit road and was coming out of Turn 2, following a track dryer on the backstretch under caution, when the trailing arm snapped, leaving him with no control over the steering, and his car suddenly revved over 100 mph, slamming full-speed into the rear of a track dryer, igniting a massive fireball.
Fortunately, Montoya and the driver of the track dryer were uninjured, both able to quickly escape from the inferno.
With both lives safe, it was suddenly upon then-NASCAR Vice President of Competition, Robin Pemberton, to save the racing surface at Daytona International Speedway.
Because the track dryer was powered by jet fuel, the flammability was immense, and it burned not only the outside retaining wall, but also threatened to burn through the asphalt on the track.
The fire and safety crews that responded to the inferno basically let the jet dryer and Montoya’s race car both burn to the ground, but instead focused on the track to keep it cool and prevent it from burning. It did not help that the track surface had been repaved during the off-season.
The crew followed Pemberton’s orders to minimize the damage to the racetrack before turning its attention to the jet dryer and race car that were ablaze, which drew criticism on FOX Sports by analyst and former Cup champion Darrell Waltrip, who thought the crew should put out the flames first.
“Darrell criticized us on national TV for not putting out the fire, that they’re not shooting (water and flame retardant) at the fire,” Pemberton said on this week’s edition of the Dale Jr. Download podcast with Dale Earnhardt Jr. “I didn’t give a sh*t if the truck burned to the ground. We were trying to save the racetrack so we can run the race.”
Pemberton Gets Police Escort To Other Side Of Track To View The Damage
Then-NASCAR president Mike Helton ordered Pemberton to become the point person on the track, receiving a police escort – with lights and sirens blaring – from the press box all the way around the track to the scene of the mishap.
Pemberton still recalls the scene he came upon when the squad car stopped.
“It smelled like a 747 crash back there with all the fuel all over,” he said. “And it had rained (just beforehand, which was why the jet dryer was out, trying to dry the soggy surface). The thing that saved it is that it was all lying on top of the water back there.”
As serious an incident as the crash and resulting fire was, it also prompted some humor between Pemberton and his brother, Ryan, who was crew chief for Dave Blaney (father of current Cup driver Ryan Blaney).
Dave was leading the race at the time, and rain had resumed on the backstretch where the accident had occurred. “My cell phone rings and it’s (my brother) Ryan,” Pemberton recalled. “They’re leading the race, and he says, ‘How you guys doing back there?’ I said, ‘It’s okay.’
“He’s like, ‘You know it’s raining?’ I said, ‘I’m standing 200 yards from your car. I know it’s raining.’ (To which Ryan retorted) ‘Oh, oh, oh, I just thought you needed to know.’ I said, ‘I know. I know. I got it. I got it.’ We did that kind of funning around.”
The rain eventually stopped, the track was dried, and Matt Kenseth – not Blaney (who finished 15th) – won, with Dale Jr. finishing second.
NASCAR made immediate rule changes after the race, requiring extra caution cars to trail all track dryers starting with the next race the following week in Phoenix, as well as requiring drivers of track dryers were required to wear fire suits and helmets.
But Pemberton still had one more humorous tale to tell about that hot February night in Daytona: “I kept the pair of dress shoes I had on that night,” he said. “I had to get them resoled because I couldn’t get the smell out of the closet.”
