Harvick's crew OK after fire on pit road

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. -- Fire is among the scariest sights in a NASCAR Winston Cup race. But after a brief fire in Kevin Harvick's pit, everyone appeared to escape injury.

During a green-flag pit stop on Lap 20 of Sunday's Sirius at the Glen at Watkins Glen International, Harvick was about to leave pit road when a fire erupted at the back of his car.

Harvick sped away and the catch-can was dropped on pit road, causing gasoline to spill out and flames to dance 15 feet in the air. Harvick's crew bailed behind the pit wall, and fire crews sprayed extinguisher on the flames to put out the fire.

Crew chief Todd Berrier told Harvick on the radio that some rubber apparently caught fire, and then spilled gas caused it to erupt. No one was hurt, the team reported.

The resulting yellow was actually a break for Harvick, for he and several others who had pitted under green stayed out to get track position.

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Harvick restarted third, but after contact with John Andretti in the right-hand Turn 1, Harvick accidentally hit the kill switch of the engine, and he dropped back to the 25th position.

"I didn't know that we had a fire," Harvick said. "The circumstances worked out really good. And then the 4 and somebody got together, and I checked up. The 0 got in the back of me and picked my tires up off the ground.

"When I came back down, I hit the kill switch. I didn't figure it out until about 20 of them passed me."