• News
• /
• Sports

A NASCAR driver and squirrel were both in disbelief when a car doing 175 MPH nearly hits the animal on the race track.

According to The Inquisitr, NASCAR racer Kevin Harvick was leading the race when he saw the animal on the track during the recent Oral-B USA 500 competition at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. Everything was going smooth until an unidentified creature suddenly ran out onto the track and directly across the path of his vehicle. Harvick managed to avoid squashing him like road kill.

The NASCAR driver and squirrel incident was heard on the radio:

“I almost hit a cat! A cat just ran right in front of me!”

But it wasn’t a cat at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. It was a squirrel. Other drivers heard Paul Wolfe, crew chief for Brad Keselowski, identified the squirrel as “not wearing a helmet.” With so many things for a driver to worry about, a squirrel was the last thing on Kevin Harvick’s mind.

The NASCAR driver and squirrel only proves that there’s much more involved with being on a NASCAR track than just racing your car. Kevin Harvick can attest to that from the Oral-B USA 500. It’s the kind of thing that can cause an accident had the driver when turning the wheel to avoid hitting the squirrel on the race track.

ESPN, who was broadcasting the NASCAR race, took notice of the situation and buzzed into the radio communications and heard NASCAR driver Brad Harvick talking about a cat instead of a squirrel being on the race track.

The streaking critter wasn’t a pesky feline, however, as it was later proven to be a squirrel who decided to risk life and limb by darting out on to an active race track.

It may as well have been a black cat where the NASCAR driver and squirrel was concerned. After dominating a bunch of the Oral-B USA 500 race and leading a lot of laps, he was forced into the wall after the first green-white-checkered restart and ended up 19th. It wasn’t a good end for the driver, but the squirrel left the race track, running away happy.

The Atlanta Motor Speedway has a history of animals making their way onto the track. They have everything from deer to bears to chickens. Fans have seen them wandered onto the concrete.

The NASCAR driver and squirrel is an interesting event. We often see these animals on roads, moving across the street before the car hits them. Sometimes, these critters will zig-zag like crazy, confusing the driver.