Big One Strikes At EchoPark Speedway, Eliminates Top Contenders
A massive crash on lap 69 of Saturday night's 260-lap Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway involved nearly half of the 40-car field, including many race favorites.
The wreck was triggered on the backstretch when a push involving John Hunter Nemechek and Denny Hamlin went terribly wrong. The two were a few cars behind the front and when Hamlin turned down into the tightly packed, oncoming double-wide freight train the track was blocked.
In addition to Hamlin and Nemechek, others involved in the crash were Austin Cindric, William Byron, Kyle Larson, Ryan Preece, Josh Berry, Carson Hocevar, Daniel Suarez, Kyle Busch, Noah Gragson, Joey Logano, Ross Chastain, Chase Briscoe, Corey LaJoie, Cody Ware, Brad Keselowski and Justin Haley.
Those who were eliminated immediately were LaJoie, Cindric, Byron, Logano, Suarez, Chastain and Berry.
Hamlin's and Briscoe's teams elected to work on their cars to try and get them back into the event; however, NASCAR eventually ruled Briscoe's chassis was bent and couldn't be fixed. The current car's toughness allowed others to continue with minor repairs.
'That's the risk you take by just jamming in there and being aggressive on restarts,' LaJoie said. 'I don't know why we're pushing like we're bumper cars at Frankie's Fun Park, but that's not to be surprised. I think there's a lot of guys that don't make wise decisions around these speedways.'
Logano described it as 'total chaos.'
'I was right in the middle of the whole thing,' said Logano, who started on the pole and led 51 laps before being eliminated. 'It's just the crappy part of our racing sometimes. You get caught up in something you couldn't do anything about. Just wrong place at the wrong time.'
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