Significant damage reported from Thursday night blaze
Fire struck the race shop of the Leavine Family Racing organization Thursday night, causing "significant damage," according to officials with the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team.
The team, which fields the No. 95 Ford for driver Michael McDowell, has been a part-time competitor in NASCAR's top division since 2011. The team was on site Friday at Kansas Speedway in advance of Saturday night's Spongebob Squarepants 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, MRN, SiriusXM), the operation's sixth race of the season.
"We can confirm there was a fire at our Concord, North Carolina, shop," LFR team officials said in a statement. "Luckily no one was injured. We are working with the fire department and local officials to determine what happened. We've heard from the fire department there was significant damage to the back of the race shop. As you can imagine, we are still working to assess the full situation."
Late Friday, the team issued another statement noting the team may need to move.
"After receiving more information from a restoration company that inspected the fire damage at the shop today, we were informed that structural damage may cause us to move our racing operations," LFR team officials said in a statement. "We are currently exploring all options.
"We do not anticipate this to impact the team's competition schedule. Our next race is the Showdown at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Four race cars were damaged in the fire - these were primarily back-up cars. A complete investigation is taking place to assess the overall damage and cause of the fire."
Car owner Bob Leavine said before the season that the small team -- which employs 14 people, by his count -- planned to compete in a minimum of 20 Sprint Cup events this year. The 2015 season marks the second year of Leavine's partnership with McDowell and the second year of a technical alliance with Team Penske, which also fields Fords in NASCAR's premier series.
Crew chief Wally Rogers said Friday morning at Kansas Speedway that the portion of the shop sustaining the most damage was a storage area in the rear of the building.
"We have four or five cars there, uniforms are stored back there," he said. "From the pictures I was sent, it looks like it was pretty intense. The cars are backup cars; the only primary was one we planned for the road-course races later this year."
As far as the next few races -- the Sprint Cup Series heads to Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Sprint All-Star and Coca-Cola 600 races before turning to Dover International Speedway -- Rogers said cars for those events weren't among those damaged.
Rogers said team personnel told him they arrived at the shop Friday morning and noticed "something smelled like it was burning."
"It wasn’t in the front (of the building)," he said of the fire, "but the good thing is the sprinklers and safety measures were working and no one was hurt."
-- Kenny Bruce contributed to this story