Watch Kurt Busch’s Monster Energy Car Catch Fire On Pit Lane

This is not the type of thing you ever want to see happenning during a pit stop.

The only fire that should ever be happenining in a NASCAR car on pitlane is the combustion inside of each of the eight cylinders firing off under the hood. But when number 41. Kurt Busch came in for a pitstop earlier today (Nov. 1, 2011) in at Martinsville Speedway for  the Goody’s Heahache Relief Shots 500, his pitcrew got more than expected. An errant spark from the air-powered impact wrench found its way over to some gas that had been spilled causing a bit of a fire that climbed its way up the Monster Energy car. Check out the vine video below!

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In the twelve seconds or less it takes for a pit stop to happen, a well rehearsed pitcrew can change all four tires, add a full can of racing fuel, wipe the windshield clean and make minor adjustments. While they practice countless hours every week, errors are bound to take place and a compounding of those errors can lead to a potentially dangerous situation.

NASCAR Refueling rigs still use gravity fed fuel cans which empty 12 gallons of fuel in 6.5 seconds. If a spill does happen, the smallest spark thrown in that direction can spell disaster for the driver, pitcrew and anyone in the near vicinity.

It doesn’t help that this was the debut for Kurt Busch and Monster Energy for the 2016 season. Eventually, Jeff Gordon took the checkered flag with Busch completing 486 laps finishing 34th.

Next: Tony Stewart donates the use of his plane to Justin Stewart's family.

Hopefully things will turn out better for Stewart-Haas racing. By the looks of things over on Busch’s official twitter, Kurt remains optimistic. “Not the debut we wanted forMonsterEnergy, but I’m really proud of my guys. We’re not out of this yet.”