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Danny Formal injury update: IMSA driver transported to hospital after fiery wreck at Virginia

JHby: Jonathan Howard08/24/25Jondean25
Danny Formal IMSA
Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-Imagn Images

A massive fire in the No. 45 car of Danny Formal in the IMSA event at Virginia International Raceway this afternoon. Thankfully, it appears that Formal made it out of the car without incident. He was alert, awake, and gave a thumbs up before going to the hospital for further evaluation.

Danny Formal was racing his team’s Lamborghini in the IMSA race at VIR. There were 38 minutes left in the event when the camera shot to Formal’s car, engulfed in flames and heading for the wall.

In the video below, you can see him jump out of the car quickly. This could have been a horrible event.

Racing is dangerous. It doesn’t matter what series, what vehicle, or what track. There is always an inherent danger when you have internal combustion engines running at the top-end of performance for hours at a time.

Danny Formal hops out of car quickly at VIR

Danny Formal was on top of things. He got out of the car quickly. It definitely helps to have a door that you can pop open instead of climbing through a window or something like that. Quick action from the driver, the safety team, and everyone involved here.

NASCAR just raced at Daytona. The high banks in Florida isn’t the only place where big wrecks and mishaps can happen. Racing has so many variables and all kinds of heat, fluids, and pressures going on. If one thing is out of balance or missing, things go south quickly.

Hopefully, Danny Formal is released from the hospital with no further injuries or issues. A close call that might remind some NASCAR fans of the fiery incident that Jordan Anderson had in the Truck Series a few years ago. It doesn’t appear that Formal was burned like Anderson. The way both vehicles hit the wall hard before the drivers finally got out is similar.