A big crash among the front of the field at tonight’s NASCAR Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway sent Kyle Larson’s No. 42 car up into the air at 190 MPH. Eight cars got caught up in the chain reaction of wreckage that followed, forcing the race to be red flagged for cleanup with only six laps to go.
“I just squeezed Ricky [Stenhouse Jr.] and wrecked myself,” Larson told NBC.
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Fortunately, Larson’s roof flaps kept his No. 43 car from flipping over, however, several other cars sustained hard damage as a result of the crash, including Kurt Busch and Danica Patrick. Ryan Blaney was forced to drive directly into Larson’s flying car with nowhere to go.
Patrick captured the frustration of getting caught up in one of these big wrecks perfectly when she kicked her broken car on pit lane.
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Fortunately, no one was injured in the big crash.
The race had to be red flagged to clean up the damage and debris left out on track. Naturally, when the race was restarted with three to go, yet another minor incident brought the yellow flag back out for a crash involving Erik Jones and Denny Hamlin.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won in overtime, getting only his second win ever in NASCAR’s top-level Cup Series.