Denny Hamlin’s engine blows up, car catches fire in scary incident

NASCAR star Denny Hamlin suffered a scary incident on the track at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday.

Hamlin’s No. 11 vehicle developed an engine issue between turns 1 and 2 on lap 75. The car then caught fire as he spun around. A lot of smoke billowed out of his engine as emergency personnel rushed over to Hamlin to extinguish the flames.

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NASCAR Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin is introduced before the start of the Würth 400 race at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas, on May 4, 2025. (Jerome Miron-Imagn Images)

He only completed 15 laps and was resigned to 38th position at the Würth 400.

“Just blew up,” Hamlin told FOX Sports.

Hamlin said he tried to prevent the engine from completely blowing in order to have his crew members take a look at it and figure out what exactly went wrong.

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The Toyota driver has put together another solid season through the first 10 races of the year. He entered the race in Fort Worth third in the points standings behind leader William Byron and Kyle Larson. He was only 52 points behind Byron.

But Sunday’s mishap definitely won’t give him a chance to jump ahead of either driver in front of him. Chase Elliott was only 20 points behind Hamlin and Christopher Bell had a 30-point deficit from him.

Hamlin has two wins this season, five top-five finishes and six top-10 finishes.

Denny Hamlin is shown during qualifying for the NASCAR Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tenn., on April 12, 2025. (Randy Sartin-Imagn Images)

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He will have another go next week when the season shifts to Kansas Speedway.

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