zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Racing
/
Car Spontaneously Explodes During NASCAR Race
Car Spontaneously Explodes During NASCAR Race-October 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:11:30

After a random NASCAR explosion that looked like something you’d see during an , the driver himself he’d “never experienced anything like that” in 35 years of racing. It seems as if the sanctioning body itself doesn’t know what happened, either.

Before we get to the details, here’s a video of the incident:

The explosion with 23 laps to go ended the day for Xfinity Series driver Derrike Cope in the Zippo 200 at Watkins Glen International, but reports that the driver was not injured. Cope pulled off from the competition surface before something exploded under the hood, taking the straightaway shortcut rather than what NASCAR calls the “bus stop” turn.

There was speculation about what could have happened on Twitter—including comments from , crew chief for print Cup Series driver Kevin Harvick, and , car chief for Sprint Cup driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr.—but Motorsport reports that NASCAR ultimately decided to impound the car and take it back to the research and development center to figure out the mystery.

Time for the guessing game, it seems—what do you think happened?

If you guessed tire failure, congratulations. It wasn’t an ordinary tire failure, though—it was about .

If you saw the random explosion under the hood of a race car during Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity…

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Racing
Motorsport Explained: What's Going On At The Alpine F1 Team?
Motorsport Explained: What's Going On At The Alpine F1 Team?
The Alpine Formula One team has been in flux for the past two seasons — and 2022 looks no different. The former Renault Team has gone through driver and personnel changes on a regular basis, and things came to a head earlier this week when Alain Prost was summarily...
Oct 23, 2026
Mad Mike Is Building The Four-Rotor Hot Hatch That Mazda Won't
Mad Mike Is Building The Four-Rotor Hot Hatch That Mazda Won't
We aren’t even to the end of January yet, and we’ve got an early contender for cool car build of the year right here. Mad Mike, the rotary obsessed Mazda/Red Bull racer who builds cool shit down in New Zealand is back with another rotary-powered cool shit car, brought...
Oct 23, 2026
WRC Car Rolls Off Mountainside At Rally Monte Carlo
WRC Car Rolls Off Mountainside At Rally Monte Carlo
The FIA World Rally Championship is in the middle of the opening round of its 2022 season, the 90th Rallye Monte Carlo. While this iconic event has been proclaimed as the start of a new era with the introduction of a new hybrid ruleset into the WRC, so far, the...
Oct 23, 2026
How To Watch IMSA, WRC, And Everything Else In Racing This Weekend; January 21-23
How To Watch IMSA, WRC, And Everything Else In Racing This Weekend; January 21-23
Welcome to the Jalopnik Weekend Motorsports Roundup, where we let you know what’s going on in the world of racing, where you can see it and where you can talk about it, all in one convenient place. Where else would you want to spend your weekend? It’s been a...
Oct 23, 2026
Australian GP Boss Says There's 'Zero Chance' Of Cancelation Despite Whole Djokovic Mess
Australian GP Boss Says There's 'Zero Chance' Of Cancelation Despite Whole Djokovic Mess
Australia hasn’t held a Formula 1 race since 2019. The 2020 event was one of the earliest sporting cancelations of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2021 version was , due to the country’s hardline restrictions around international travel and vaccinations. But this year’s running — scheduled for April 10...
Oct 23, 2026
Remember When Paris Hilton Sponsored A Motorcycle Racing Team?
Remember When Paris Hilton Sponsored A Motorcycle Racing Team?
The year is 2011, and you’re looking at your favorite motorcycle racing news website to find something strange: Paris Hilton is sponsoring a 125cc Grand Prix motorcycle team, which was the equivalent of what we call Moto3 today. That’s right. This is your reminder that notorious socialite Paris Hilton...
Oct 23, 2026
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved