A stock car driver is talking about how he survived his car bursting into flames during a race Saturday in Oxford.
"I thought I was gonna be stuck in there and just burn to death. I never thought I'd make it out," Kyle Hewins told News 13 from his hospital bed Monday morning.
Flames engulfed Hewins' stock car at Oxford Plains Speedway Saturday night. It was a routine ride for Hewins, of Leeds, who has raced a 4-cyllinder car for seven years.
In his eighth year, the 23-year-old entered a higher division, racing a car with a V8 engine. However, Saturday night, he decided to drive his old car for the first time this season.
"I had practiced the car all day. It wasn't going that great, but it was decent," Hewins said.
Shortly into the race, Hewins says he smelled gas, and before he knew it, the car was on fire.
"I just panicked to rip myself out, and I got caught on my steering wheel and my shoulder strap," said Hewins. "So I was hanging half way out of the car, and I had to drag myself back into the flames, and I just reached into the fire and pulled the wheel off and threw it, and then just shot myself out as fast as I could."
Hewins was air lifted to Maine Medical Center. His hands suffered the worst burns, and his leg is burned, too. Even though he's in pain, he says he'll take it, since his friend was supposed to be driving that car Saturday night.
"He ain't taking it that well. He said if it would've been him in the car he probably wouldn't have got out nearly as quick as I did."
Hewins quick thinking got him out, and he should make a full recovery. He hopes it's before racing season ends.
"I'd like to recover as fast as I can and get back in (a stock car). Because if I sit all winter long without racing, it's going to make me scared to get back in one."
We tried contacting Oxford Plains Speedway to find out if they're reevaluating safety requirements for drivers in light of Hewins' accident. They have not responded.
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