Prior to Monday’s NASCAR Cup Series season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, two jet dryer vehicles collided and spilled jet fuel in Turn 1 of the 2.5-mile race course.
NASCAR officials and Daytona International Speedway track officials confirmed that neither truck driver was injured in the incident, which happened around 11:30 AM ET on Monday, February 19 — just a half-hour after the Xfinity Series event was originally scheduled to begin before its postponement.
As the two trucks entered the 31-degree banked Turn 1, the truck in the high lane lost traction and skidded down the banking, causing it to slam into the side of the other truck. As the collision took place, jet fuel began to pour from the trucks and coat the track surface in Turn 1.
CupScene.com (@CupScene on X) captured a picture of the aftermath of the incident, in which safety crews and cleanup trucks were responding to the incident in Turn 1. At the time, the post indicated that there was uncertainty about whether the issue was a fire or a fuel leak.
It appears something has happened to a jet dryer in turn 1 not sure if it’s a fire or fuel leak @DAYTONA pic.twitter.com/X8t9awkpkc
— CupScene.com (@cupscene) February 19, 2024
Fortunately, the speedway has protocols in place for jet fuel cleanup following an incident in the 2012 Daytona 500, where a jet dryer truck ignited after a collision with Juan Pablo Montoya.
The track cleanup crew was able to take care of the jet fuel spill, and track drying is still on pace for no further race delays.
While as previously mentioned, the NASCAR Xfinity Series event was postponed for the second time this weekend — now scheduled to run Monday at 9:00 PM ET. However, the NASCAR Cup Series Daytona 500 is still scheduled to get underway around 4:00 PM ET, after it too was postponed from its original runtime on Sunday, with television coverage being provided by FOX.
Following Monday’s Daytona 500, FOX Sports will be moving its coverage of the NASCAR Xfinity Series United Rentals 300 to FS1 at 9:00 PM ET, as the series takes on its season-opener, which will consist of 120 laps around the 2.5-mile superspeedway.
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