NASCAR investigating 'unacceptable' fires after Kevin Harvick's car went up in flames at first playoff race

There is a fire issue that can't be ignored after Harvick's car went up in flames on national television. Fords have been the most affected by fire issues since the Chevrolet of Alex Bowman caught fire. There were car fires at the Indianapolis road course, as well as at theRichmond road course.

I'm pretty sure it's just bad parts on the car. Nothing has been fixed. It is similar to the safety stuff. Harvick, who finished 33rd because of the fire, said that they just let it continue.

As the car burned, the flames came through the dash. As the flame got bigger, it started burning things up. There was a fire in the car. It was a disaster for nothing. The wall was not touched by us. We didn't touch a car and here we are in the pits with a burnt-up car and we can't finish the race because of crappy-ass parts.

"Because the flames were coming through the dash and I couldn't make myself sit in there and burn up, I stopped where I did on the track."

The fire dropped Harvick, winner of two races this season, to last in the 16-driver playoff field. Next week, four drivers will be eliminated from contention.

Scott Miller, senior vice president of competition for NASCAR, said series officials are investigating after acknowledging that it's unacceptable for the cars to catch on fire.

In the meantime, NASCAR ordered teams to replace a part of the panel used in the passenger side door with something else. The goal is to keep debris out of the drivers. Changes to the coating material on the cars are allowed by NASCAR.

NASCAR has not addressed Next Gen issues, according to Harvick.

It's not true that NASCAR doesn't care. Miller said on the radio that he thinks he knows we care.

Along the way, we've been working on different solutions for different things that seem to be the cause. We still have a lot of work to do.

NASCAR is taking a closer look at Ford's exhaust clearances because they seem to be having more trouble with this than the others, according to Miller.

A lot of work is being done to get to the bottom of it. He said that they need to get to the bottom of it quickly.

One theory is that rubber is trapped inside the cars and then ignites, which is why NASCAR mandated the splitter seal to reduce the migration of tire debris to the splitter area.