Race car hauler catches fire at JD Motorsports on Sunday night, total loss

GAFFNEY, S.C. (April 30, 2012) – JD Motorsports, the No. 01 Chevrolet in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, suffered a total loss to their hauler on Sunday evening when it caught fire at their race shop.

There were no injuries and the tractor was detached and pulled away before suffering any damages. However, their hauler loaded with equipment, some uniforms, back-up parts, engines, shocks and springs for their operation was a total loss.

The only good part was the primary and backup No. 01 Restaurant.com Chevrolets for this weekend’s NASCAR race at Talladega Superspeedway were not on the hauler. The race shop itself didn’t suffer any damage, as well.

“The fire department told me the fire started near the refrigerator on the hauler;” said Johnny Davis, team owner. “That’s powered by propane, like everyone else’s is on these haulers. It started around 7 p.m. and we were able to detach the tractor before anything happened to it and get that out of the way.

“The hauler itself is a total loss; almost everything on there is burnt beyond use. Luckily, the fine folks at Robby Benton Racing (NASCAR Camping World Truck Series) stepped up and will let us use their hauler for this weekend’s race. We were also fortunate enough to have Black’s Tire helps us out to get to race this weekend, too. On behalf of everyone on my team, we’d all like to thank them for their help.

“Our spirits are down here a little bit at JD Motorsports today, we just didn’t need something like this right now with all we’re trying to do to go racing. Our spirits might be down, but not broken – we’re going to be racing at Talladega.”