Fire Damages NASCAR Leavine Family Racing Shop

Posted by Wayne G. Barber

Fire damages Leavine Family Racing shop UPDATES: Firefighters were busy Friday morning putting out flames at a NASCAR team's race shop in Harrisburg. Crews from Harrisburg and Concord were called to #95-Leavine Family Racing's shop on Victory Lane around 7:00am and encountered flames and smoke coming from the building. Fire officials said crews were able to get the fire under control around 8:30am. Officials with the race team confirmed there was a fire at their shop and that nobody was hurt. Four of the team's 12 cars were destroyed. Tools, parts and pieces were ruined. Ash and soot covered cars and equipment. Heat from the fire had melted windshields and popped tires. Yet, Leavine Family Racing will compete this weekend in the Sprint Showdown at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Unable to work in its 20,000-square foot shop, Leavine Family Racing is preparing its cars for this weekend at Team Penske in an area formerly used by its Porsche racing program and not far from where the Sprint Cup cars of Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano are prepared. Leavine Family Racing is aligned with Team Penske. Friday's fire was contained to the back of Leavine Family Racing's shop and Lange said he's hopeful to be back working in the shop shortly after the Coca-Cola 600. The team, which is running a partial schedule, already had planned to race at Charlotte the next two weekends and skip races at Dover, Pocono and Michigan before returning at Sonoma in late June. The fire does not change that schedule. Lange said the cars destroyed were to be used as backup cars for upcoming races - the primary cars are located elsewhere in the building and were not damaged by the fire. One of the cars destroyed had been used at Sonoma previously but the team was planning on a new car for that race. Photo and Story Source; NBC Sports P/R Media