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NASCAR released a technical bulletin on Tuesday mandating that its race teams replace part of the right side back stop panel of the Next Gen car with stainless steel as a means of addressing the issue of the cars catching fire on the right side.

The change comes just days after Kevin Harvick's car caught fire, knocking him out of the Southern 500 at Darlington.

Over the past several races, a problem -- particularly among Ford teams -- has arisen with the Next Gen car. Fires have occurred in the exhaust and rocker box area on the right side of the car. While the exact cause of the issue is not completely clear, one hypothesis has been that rubber buildup has been getting trapped in the car and burning.

Multiple drivers have been affected, including Chris Buescher and Joey Logano at Indianapolis, Cole Custer at Michigan, and Chase Briscoe at Richmond before Harvick and J.J. Yeley's car both caught fire at Darlington.

In order to mitigate the risk of fire, NASCAR has mandated that its teams replace part of the polymer back stop panel on the bottom right passenger's side of the Next Gen car with a 14 gauge stainless steel panel that must be mounted inboard of the polymer panel. Other changes outlined on Wednesday include:

  • The use of intumescent coatings are now permitted for the underside of the lower crush panels, inside the exhaust cover panels, on the upper surface of the rocker box, and on the right side stop panel. This will help provide fire protection to steel components.
  • A lateral seal/dam has been mandated to be installed between the back of the front clip weight box and the top of the splitter panel. This will help reduce the mitigation of tire debris from the splitter area.
  • NASCAR has recommended that when installing the exhaust, clearance between the exhaust and the floor of the rocker box should be maximized.

The technical bulletin came after NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition Scott Miller directly addressed the issue during an appearance on SiriusXM Radio, expressing a sense of urgency to get the problem resolved.

"It's unacceptable for the cars to catch on fire. We've been working on different solutions for different things along the way that seem maybe are the trigger," Miller said. "Obviously we still have work to do. We're looking at clearances on particularly the Ford exhaust, because they seem to have been having a little bit more trouble with this than the others. There's a lot of work going on, a lot of collaboration within the industry to get to the bottom of it. And we have to get to the bottom of it quick, obviously."

Part of that urgency comes from recent criticism of NASCAR over safety concerns with the Next Gen car, the strongest of which has come from Harvick both before and after his car went up in flames. Just days after he criticized officials for not adequately responding to the Next Gen car being too rigid in impacts, Harvick ripped NASCAR by blaming "crappy parts" for the fire and mentioning that flames had begun to come through his dashboard.

"We just keep letting cars burn up, letting people crash into stuff, get hurt. We don't fix anything," Harvick told reporters in the garage area. "They don't care. It's cheaper to not fix it."

While Miller stated on SiriusXM that he was not interested in getting into a war of words with Harvick, he did rebuke the idea that the sanctioning body did not care about safety issues, commenting that the idea is "about as far from the truth as you could get".