Driving in only his second truck race, Thomas Annunziata walked away from his truck that caught on fire at Lap 79 on Saturday.

Annunziata was driving Tricon Garage’s No. 1 Toyota under caution, running second in the  LiUNA 150 race at Lime Rock when his car caught on fire. Luckily, he was able to get away from his truck. 

Although he was able to walk away from his truck, the 21-year-old driver was immediately escorted to the medical facility. 

Tricon Garage released a statement on X and wrote, “Thomas Annunziata is awake and alert and being transported to an area medical facility for further evaluation.”

Black fumes emerged along with fire as Annunziata slowed his car down and stopped the truck on the frontstretch. As the AMR Safety Team arrived and surrounded his truck, Annunziata calmly got out of his car as flames and fumes engulfed it. 

Tricon No. 1 crew chief Jerame Donley commented post-race as to what sparked the issue. “We honestly don’t know,” Donley told NASCAR.com. “It’s kind of chicken or the egg. There’s a lot of stuff that’s melted under there, a lot of stuff got hot. We’ll get back to the shop and try to dissect it and figure out what happened."

While there were no visible burns to his physical self, medical precautions are being taken to ensure that the young Toyota driver’s lungs aren’t affected in any way. 

As the videos of his Tricon Toyota truck catching fire emerged on social media, fans have been pouring in wishes, hoping the young driver is okay. 

Fans show immediate concern for Annunziata

NASCAR fans are always active on social media, and fans were quick to jump on X to share their support and wishes for Thomas Annunziata.

One fan wrote, “Hope hes alright. Only driver who got louder reactions than him today was Kligerman, fans love him, wish the track did too. Hes a damn wheelman.”

Fans who were cheering for Annunziata were left disheartened, “man🫩🫩 he was going to win this race,” wrote one fan while another fan wrote, “Could’ve been a lot worse.  Hope Annunziata is OK.”

One fan commented on the severity of the incident and wrote, “Don’t think I ever seen a car/truck randomly go up in flames like that before. Kid looks to be ok but he looked really scared and traumatized.”

Another fan noticed that the safety crew wasn’t as proactive and wrote, “NASCAR safety team just standing around while Annunziata is on his knees...”

In the end, it was Grant Enfinger, the veteran driver for CR7 Motorsport, who took the win in his Chevrolet 9 car.

Do you think NASCAR safety officials handled the Annunziata incident correctly? Let us know. 

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Debrup Chaudhuri

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason