“Off to a Good Start”—NASCAR Fans Furious as an Old Issue Strikes Newcomer Ty Gibbs

Last year, one of the most talked about issues with the Next Gen car concerned driver safety. Aside from a few hits that left a couple of drivers concussed, there was a risk of a fire breaking out in the car. There were promises of getting the issue looked at and remedied, but now it seems to have cropped up yet again.

This time, the latest victim is Cup Series newcomer, Ty Gibbs, driving the #54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

The incident occurred during a practice session at the Los Angeles Coliseum. According to a tweet by NASCAR journalist Jeff Gluck, Ty Gibbs said that it got really dark inside the car and appeared to originate from the right front. However, that was all that he and the team could figure out from their initial investigation. Naturally, NASCAR fans were not at all happy at the re-occurrence of the issue.

How did NASCAR fans react to the Ty Gibbs fire?

Safe to say, fans were unhappy with what had transpired at the Coliseum. All in all, it was not an ideal situation for the stock car racing series to be caught up in. On the bright side, Gibbs was able to hop out of his car without too much difficulty. However, fans were simply aghast as the NASCAR officials had nearly a year to fix such issues, so there was no excuse as to why it was still happening.

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To make matters worse, this was even before the very first race of the Cup Series season, which is a pretty bad look for the sport. Several people in the community demanded that action needed to be taken before anyone gets hurt. Some fans guessed that the primary culprit could be the newly installed mufflers and the modified rocker box.

Honestly speaking, the explanation makes sense because similar cases were seen last year as well. Apparently, the exhaust was re-routed through the rocker panels below the doors. They also incorporated mufflers and resonators to reduce the noise and opened the bottom of the rocker boxes for cooling. However, that increased the risk of rubber building up and possibly combusting.

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