The “Big One” took out or affected close to a dozen cars near the halfway mark of the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.
As the field rounded Turn 2 on lap 71, Kyle Busch, running seventh in the top line, wiggled and spun out. Kurt Busch and Ryan Blaney, who were running behind him, drove past Kyle on the high-side before the hole closed. But because he was running closer to the wall in the middle of the field, others weren’t so lucky. Joey Logano, behind Blaney, didn’t reach the hole before Busch was pulled back up track and was collected in, officially, a 10-car pileup exiting Turn 2.
Prior to the wreck, Busch radioed that he felt a tire going down. Kurt, who was drafting behind his brother when the spin happened, also said he smelled a tire rub. Video replay showed Kyle Busch making contact with Michael McDowell heading into Turn 1, leading to a left-rear tire rub and tire failure.
“I saw four our five laps before the wreck that the 95 got into the side of the 18. I didn’t see any smoke off the 18, just a near miss. Then four or five laps later I think the left-rear popped on the 18 and around he started going and we were there,” Logano said. “Wrong place at the wrong time again for us. It’s superspeedway racing. Sometimes you’re on the good side of it, sometimes you’re on the wrong side of it. That was the bad one. We’ll just move and head to the next race.”
Among the collected was, Martin Truex Jr., While whoahing his car down, he hit the rear of Logano’s car and was rear-ended by Jamie McMurray, sending him up into the wall. Austin Dillon was another, who in the smoke of the wreck, submarined under the rear of Truex’s car.
“I just tried to slow down, but you know you get hit from behind, you hit the guy in front of you – there’s nothing you can do,” Truex said. “When you’re going 190 something and everybody stops in front of you, it’s kind of hard to do anything. Unfortunate night for sure for our Bass Pro Toyota. This July race, man, I don’t think I’ve finished it in like five years. It’s just – it’s been a tough one every time. Every time we feel like we’re doing something okay we get in a big wreck, so it’s been a tough one for sure but rebound and go to Kentucky and hopefully go for some more wins.”
Dillon, who was blinded by the smoke created from the wreck, said he didn’t see what happened, nor was he sure what had happened.
“I tried to slow down, I downshifted and it wasn’t enough,” he said. “We knocked the oil cooler and radiator out of ours. Fun race for the American Ethanol Chevrolet race team and as part of this deal you have to shove yourself in a bad position. I should have been smarter and rode around like half of the others in the field, but we were trying to get some bonus points there coming to the end of the stage. It didn’t work out.”
Kyle Larson turned briefly onto the apron when Busch spun out. The sudden change of banking loosened his car and he spun out exiting Turn 2 onto the apron.
He was later collected in a multi-car wreck in the closing laps, but leaves with an 18-point lead over Truex. Dillon sits 21st in points, but has a win on the season that locks him into the playoffs. With his “encumbered” win, Logano is still on the outside looking in.
