Those who saw the Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint Unlimited race at Daytona Beach witnessed one of the rarest and most ironic incidents ever to happen on a race track. The safety car for the race, a new Chevrolet SS, caught fire on deployment and had to retire before the race was finished.

The Chevrolet SS Safety Car was pacing the field in the final leg of the race when flames burst from the trunk of the car, filing the cabin with smoke. The smoke was an alarming enough sign for the safety car driver Brett Bodine and his assistant to pull over and get out.

The fire was dealt with by the marshals present at the track. It was almost certainly they had to rescue the pace car itself, and not one of the racers. The cause of the fire has not been determined yet, but Chevrolet said they are investigating the incident to see if there is any relation between this and the massive recall they recently announced for some of 2005 to 2007 models. Those cars are also prone to combustion due to faulty ignition switch.

A replacement pace car was brought on to conclude NASCAR Sprint Unlimited, which was won Denny Hamlin in a Toyota.