Danielle Suarez's evening at Daytona International Speedway ended in near disaster after just 39 laps during Saturday's NASCAR Coke Zero sugar 400 when the Mexican driver's car burst into flames After exiting his first Pit Stop during the cup series event the track house racing driver stepped out of the vehicle unharmed and ended his race in stage two with race side photos revealing devastating heat damage to the back of Suarez's car the first time as well for me man it was a very weird feeling I can feel the heat in my back but I cannot see it Suarez told and NASCAR reporter I was trying to go fast to try to calm down the fire but by time I got here in pit Lane I can feel a lot of heat and when I stopped I could see the fire here very unfortunate honestly after seeing the replay I don't know what we could have done better the alarming incident came as Suarez prepared to pull away from his first Pit Stop number 11 driver Danny Hamlin who was pitted next to the track house driver pulled forward and ignited his Anin over some fuel on the ground which ignited a fire that spread to Suarez's vehicle Suarez pulled into the Pit Road area and attempted to drive dangerously with a fire near his fuel cell area before he was alerted of the danger by his racing crew I don't think he Danielle Suarez was going to get out I think he was waiting for us to put it out was the message overheard on the number 99 team radio the driver stepped away from the incident without any physical injuries but salt was rubbed in his metaphorical wounds as pit Ball's Fireball blared over the speakers at Daytona International Speedway Armando Christian P till a copyright res known by his stage name pitb purchased the prominent ownership stake in track house racing while Suarez sits right on the playoff bubble on points he secured his in the postseason on the second weekend of the season after winning the am better health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway the monter native will wrap up the regular season from Darlington Raceway next week and before looking to break through in the playoffs Suarez grew up in Mexico's second largest city of montere and began his driving journey in cart racing at just 10 years old after 4 years in the NASCAR Mexico series along with other stock car racing series Suarez earn as chance in this infity series with Joe Gibbs Racing in 2015 and advaned to The Cup series two years later after winning a second tier title he became the first Mexican driver to win a cup series event at Sonoma in 2022 a season where he completed a career best 10th Place finish and is set to compete a third consecutive top 20 finish this