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During a caution period at Lime Rock Park on Saturday afternoon, Thomas Annunziata’s Tricon Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, which was running in second position, suddenly caught fire during the LiUNA 150 race. Annunziata quickly pulled his truck off the track and leapt out of the burning vehicle.

Following the incident, Annunziata was first examined at the infield care centre before being shifted to a nearby medical facility for additional evaluation.

Tricon later issued an official statement confirming, “Thomas Annunziata is awake and alert and has been transported to a local medical facility for further evaluation.”

Just one lap before the fire, Annunziata was closing the gap on Giovanni Ruggiero in a tight battle for the lead when Chandler Smith’s truck stalled in turn four, triggering the fifth caution of the event and the third one specifically for an on-track incident.

The restart was scheduled for lap 81, but the race was temporarily red-flagged to allow officials to clean the track after Annunziata’s truck leaked oil as a result of the blaze.

The terrifying fire came only a day after Annunziata had secured victory in the ARCA Series race at Lime Rock Park on Friday night—his second ARCA career win at the same venue where he had earned his first.

Jerame Donley stated after the race that NASCAR will conduct a detailed investigation to determine what caused the fire. “We honestly don’t know,” Donley explained regarding the source of the problem. “It’s kind of like the chicken or the egg situation. A lot of components underneath melted; a lot of things overheated. We’ll go back to the shop, take everything apart, and try to figure out what exactly happened. There have been alternator issues across the field—we had one at San Diego, and I think the 34 (Front Row Motorsports team) had a couple of issues today. The 9 (of race winner Grant Enfinger) also had an issue. It just seems like there may be some ongoing problems that we haven’t identified yet, and we’ll need to analyse it further. Unfortunately, we don’t have a quick, short answer right now.”

Following the incident, Annunziata was officially classified 29th in the race results. This event marked his second career start in the NASCAR Truck Series, with both appearances taking place at Lime Rock Park.