TALLADEGA, Ala. — Seventy-three-year-old Norm Benning says he’s looking forward to racing again after he survived a fiery incident in Friday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Talladega Superspeedway.
Benning was treated in the infield care center and released about an hour after arriving.
The engine in Benning’s truck blew on Lap 66 of the 90-lap race. Flames could be seen throughout the truck before a fire extinguisher inside the vehicle automatically activated.
“The engine exploded,” Benning told NBC Sports. “A lot of flames. A lot of smoke. Couldn’t wait to get out of it. Inhaled a lot of smoke. Got some treatment. I’ll be back (Saturday) morning for another treatment. Other than that I’m fine. It’s just sad that it ruined a good truck.
“That’s the first time I’ve had one explode that bad. I just felt something break in the engine and immediately flames came inside and smoke. … I knocked it in neutral in Turn 2 there. I got down as good as good I could. I was putting my net down. I’m (undoing) my belts and everything else. I finally got it stopped and went out the window head first. I couldn’t breathe at all.”
Benning said he dove out of the vehicle.
“I just wanted out of there,” he said. “I couldn’t breathe at all, smoke and stuff.”
Benning, who made his first NASCAR start in 1989 in the Cup Series, said there’s nothing else he would rather be doing even after an incident like Friday’s.
“The definition of insanity, why not?” Benning said of why he keeps racing. “Why quit now? My doctor says keep going. He says you’ll know when to quit. So that’s what I’m going to do.”
He says he plans to be at Martinsville for next weekend’s Truck race and wants to be in Daytona next February at the start of the season when he’ll be 74 years old.
Gio Ruggiero won Friday’s Truck race.
A replay of the incident involving Norm Benning on Lap 65.
— NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Trucks (@NASCAR_Trucks) October 17, 2025
Benning climbed from his race truck under his own power. pic.twitter.com/wN5hlflL6M
