The lights at Bristol Motor Speedway always promise high-stakes drama, but this time, the heat turned literal for one playoff contender. While Christopher Bell’s No. 20 Toyota dominated the track with a commanding performance, another car was running hot in a way no one expected: the No. 21 Ford of Josh Berry. Smoke began billowing from the right front around Lap 74, forcing an unscheduled pit stop that derailed what had been a solid run. But what started as a mechanical glitch quickly escalated into something far more urgent.

The suspected culprit? A buildup of shredded tire rubber catching on the hot brake rotor, a hazard amplified by the unexpectedly high tire wear that night. This not only ended Berry’s evening in 39th place but also extinguished his playoff hopes, marking his third straight last-place finish and elimination from contention. But the Bristol incident was something that his crew chief and team had to act fast on amid the chaos. So let’s dive deep into the pit road chaos to understand how the crew chief responded to this incident.

Miles Stanley’s desperate plea amid flames

The radio crackled with urgency as Josh Berry‘s No. 21 Ford limped toward pit road, smoke turning to visible fire under the right front. “You got a fire on the right front. You got a flat under the right front. Shut off the brake fans, shut off the brake fans,” Stanley instructed, his voice steady at first as he guided Berry through the turns. This came after Berry radioed his distress: “I don’t know how much longer. I can’t. I gotta stop… Can we get a caution? There is a fu*king fire on the pit road. No caution, NASCAR? We’ve got a driver on fire.” The buildup of rubber from aggressive tire degradation, common at Bristol’s short track but worsened by warmer temperatures, had ignited on the header, spreading quickly to the rocker panel.

Stanley’s calls grew frantic as the car reached the pit box, with flames now threatening safety. “Hey, pit pit pit. Fireade. Fireade right side. Right side. You’re coming to you right here. Fireade. Now, aid first. Fireade first, and then the tire. Fireade first. Road crew fireade, first,” he directed the crew, prioritizing extinguishing over repairs.

Why the demand for caution, you may ask? With a burning car on pit road, it posed risks to Berry, the crew, and nearby teams, echoing past scares like the 2004 Sonoma fire that engulfed Dale Earnhardt Jr.‘s Corvette during practice, where he escaped with burns but highlighted the need for immediate race halts. NASCAR eventually threw the yellow, but not before the damage sealed Berry’s fate.

Post-race, Berry reflected on the ordeal’s buildup. “Maybe seven or eight laps before we came on pit road, we started getting some smoke in the cockpit. And then the longer I went, the darker the smoke got, and then obviously by the time we got on pit road, it was completely black smoke,” he said, noting the fire stayed in the fender, but the smoke caused intense coughing. He added, “When I slowed down on pit road, it got way worse. I was just trying to make it to the pit box so the guys could help me get out because I couldn’t see a thing.”

This substantiated the chaos: Berry’s team physically pulled him from the smoke-filled cockpit and took him to the infield care center, but the incident capped a playoff run plagued by bad luck. While Berry’s fiery exit stole headlines, it was part of a broader shakeup in the Round of 16. As the checkered flag fell, four drivers saw their championship dreams fade.

Playoff shakeup: First four eliminated

Josh Berry’s string of misfortunes headlined the eliminations, but he wasn’t alone in facing early exits. Entering Bristol 45 points below the cutline, Berry’s fire on Lap 74 compounded prior woes, a Lap 1 tangle with Tyler Reddick at Darlington, and contact with Chase Elliott at Gateway. This year marked his first Cup playoff appearance, where execution was solid but results weren’t, as Berry noted, “It really hasn’t been because of performance. We’ve qualified well. We’ve had good cars. We just haven’t had the finishes.”

Austin Dillon, who punched his ticket with a Richmond win, struggled to build momentum, averaging a 23rd-place finish across the round. Starting below the cutline each time, his consistent mid-pack runs weren’t enough to advance in his sixth playoff bid. Shane van Gisbergen, strong on road courses with four wins, faltered on ovals like Bristol, where alternative strategies failed to yield the needed cautions. His average 27.67 finish in the opening round of the playoffs sealed an early out despite the Round of 12 having a road course.

And the last one who got eliminated was Alex Bowman, who rounded out the group, 10 points short after strong starts but fading results, including 31st and 26th in the first two races. The only Hendrick driver without a 2025 win, he ran as high as second at Bristol but couldn’t capitalize. Bowman quipped after an earlier race, “I owe Blaney ‘7 million beers” which is starting to look like a bad trade, reflecting the frustration of close calls in his seventh playoff try.