Thomas Annunziata earned a big win in Friday’s ARCA Menards Series race at Lime Rock Park. The 21-year-old led 59 of 68 laps and won by nearly ten seconds, but things did not go nearly as smoothly in Saturday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race.
He qualified fourth, making just his second start in the Truck Series. He also ran this race one year ago, finishing 15th. But this year, he had a real chance to sweep the weekend.
Annunziata ran inside the top five for most of the race, until he sustained significant damage to the right-side door in a restart melee. Undeterred, he fought on and after some late-race carnage, he found himself running second with just over 20 laps to go. Unfortunately, the impressive rebound would end there.
Under caution, Annunziata’s No. 1 TRICON Garage Toyota abruptly burst into the flames, with the fire originating from the front of the car. He quickly stopped and pulled himself from the smoldering truck without any assistance, and would finish 29th. However, he then appeared to need a moment to collect himself, and spent some time talking with the safety workers.
After being checked at the infield care center, Annunziata was later transported to a local hospital for further evaluation. The team said that he is “awake and alert.”
UPDATE: Annunziata was cleared and released from the hospital, per a statement from the team just before 11pm EST. on Saturday.
Annunziata later posted the following message, saying: “Want to start by saying I’m OK. I really appreciate all the messages and concern after yesterday—just swallowed a little fire, that’s all. On the racing side, what a weekend. TRICON Garage gave me a race-winning truck. We qualified up front, ran up front all day, and were lining up on the front row with a shot to win before our day came to an early end. Not bad for my second Truck Series start—we’ll be back.”
It’s an unfortunate end to what started off as a dream weekend for the rising star, who leaves Lime Rock second in the ARCA championship standings, just eight points adrift of the lead.
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