Early ‘Big One’ Eliminates Contenders & Playoff Hopefuls

Bubba Wallace (23) and others crash on lap 27 Saturday night at Daytona Int'l Speedway. (HHP/Andrew Coppley photo)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – It didn’t take long for the Coke Zero Sugar 400 – and the battle to make the NASCAR Cup Series playoff field – to get turned on its head Saturday night.

A 12-car accident in the tri-oval at Daytona Int’l Speedway was sparked on lap 27 of 160, when Bubba Wallace got spun around from fourth place in front of a snarling pack.

The chaos that ensued quickly demolished the hopes of several postseason hopefuls who needed a win to make the playoffs, as well as others already locked into the championship chase that were just hoping to take home a trophy from the World Center of Racing.

Wallace was a lane above Joey Logano exiting turn four when Kyle Busch got a run down low and squeezed to the inside of Logano’s yellow-and-red No. 22 Ford.

Suddenly three wide, Wallace got a bump from behind by Kyle Larson that got his No. 23 Toyota a bit squirrelly, and it slid down into Logano before getting fully turned across Logano’s front bumper.

Numerous cars piled in, with Wallace’s car washing back up into the path of Austin Cindric’s machine and causing race-ending damage for both.

The likes of Noah Gragson, Alex Bowman, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and more were also eliminated.

After being checked and released from the infield care center, Wallace took the blame for the accident, even before having enough time to fully digest a replay of what happened.

“Everything was happening pretty quick there. The hit from the 5 (Larson) shoved me down there and it was like I got shoved up by the 22 (Logano) and the 12 (leader Ryan Blaney) moved up,” Wallace reflected. “He was trying to just move up and take the lane. I hate it. We came from 20th or 22nd to the lead in a short amount of time. I hate it for [sponsor] Columbia. They came down here and I couldn’t get them a good result.

“I’ll take the blame for it, unfortunately. Just a crap deal,” Wallace added. “Everything was going too good too early to be all true. Something was bound to happen. I hate that for everyone involved in it, but … all in all, we’re locked in [to the playoffs], and we’ll get focused for Darlington.”

Though he ended up out of the race, Cindric could also rest easier knowing he’s clinched into the playoffs, thanks to his April win at Daytona’s sister track of Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.

Cindric didn’t think there was anything he could have done differently to escape the storm.

“I don’t really know if we could have gone anywhere else, truthfully,” Cindric noted to NBC pit reporter Parker Kligerman, who won Friday night’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Daytona.

“I thought I made it through most of it, but I guess the highlight of my day becomes being able to stand here [outside the care center] and congratulate you. Past that, I’ll probably go up to the spotter’s stand and cheer on my teammates. It’s a shame. I thought our car handled fairly well, and I was just caught in the middle.”

With 20 drivers entering the night in must-win situations if they wanted to qualify for the playoffs, Cindric added that the race “was getting crazy” far earlier than it should have, in his eyes.

“I could feel the intensity picking up, when it probably didn’t need to that early in the race,” pointed out Cindric. “Come to think of it, I actually did tighten up my belts about a lap before that crash happened. Just a shame, like I said. Our car handled well enough to be a contender tonight.

“That’s the way it goes [at superspeedways] sometimes, though.”

A driver that hoped to win his way into the postseason that was taken out in the crash was Noah Gragson, just the latest down moment in a season to forget for the Las Vegas native.

“I saw them wrecking towards the bottom and they shot up the racetrack into us,” explained Gragson. “I mean, it’s every race this year it seems like, or most of them. We’ve just been collateral damage all year long and just the wrong place at the right time pretty much every race.

“It’s definitely a bummer, but I’m still super proud of our team. We started almost towards the back, 32nd I think, and we were up in the top 10 [by] 20 laps in, so it’s not from a lack of effort,” he added. “I just really appreciate everybody at Front Row Motorsports. We’re looking on to Darlington. It’s more in our control and look to have a strong run there.”

The front end of Alex Bowman’s No. 48 Chevrolet was heavily damaged in the crash, as was the chassis, leading to a DNF for the driver who entered the night on the playoff bubble.

Taken out in the early chaos, Bowman could only watch as his postseason fate hung out of his control.

“From where we were, there just wasn’t any way to get around it,” tipped Bowman. “It’s part of it.”

The crash necessitated an eight minute, 30 second red flag stoppage for cleanup at the 2.5-mile oval.