The Coke Zero 400 at Daytona will be remembered for several big crashes, including two that sent cars into the air from the lead, playing a role in the ultimate outcome of the race as well.
The second ‘big one,’ NASCAR nomenclature for a massive multi-car melee, came with eight laps to go when leader Michael McDowell was spun in front of the field and struck by Joey Logano and initiating liftoff.
McDowell did not go all the way over , landing on all four wheels, but the crash still collected Kyle Larson, Justin Haley, Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace.
“It was going over,” McDowell said. “I had my eyes closed, but whoever hit me, it felt like it set me back down because I had that moment where it got real light and it got real quiet and then I got hit, and then I was back on the ground. I haven’t seen the replay, but I’m just glad Josh Berry is okay. That one looked definitely worse than mine.
“It’s the end of a Daytona race and these things happen. Everybody is pushing hard and we had guys up there that had to win, so you know everybody is going to go for it.”
McDowell led 26 laps in a race that only victory would see him advance into the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.
The same can be said of Josh Berry, who just one restart later, was leading the race when contact from Kyle Busch to Austin Cindric ping ponged into Berry. That sent Berry upside down, rolling on its roof, before slamming the wall while still upside down.
“Yeah, I’m all good,” Berry said. “It actually wasn’t as bad as it looked. But, man, I’m bummed because we had a hell of a night going. Just such a great job by Rodney [Childers, crew chief] and this whole 4 team; the car was so strong and we were in position.
“I’m really proud of the job I did tonight and really proud of the job the whole team did because we were in contention. That could have been our day. But it didn’t work out. I just want to thank everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing and Ford and NASCAR for building safe race cars; Eero for coming on board tonight. It’s disappointing, but whether we would have won or flipped, we’re going to go to work Monday and try to win next week.”
These crashes came a year after Ryan Preece had a violent blowover in which he dug into the backstretch grass and rolled some more as a result. NASCAR responded by paving much of the backstretch, and that was met with applause by those involved in the crashes on Saturday.
“As bad as it looked, they made a big improvement over what Ryan had last year,” Berry said. “I just can’t believe we flipped two of our Stewart-Haas cars in a row like that.”
McDowell, despite being upside down, came away with more optimism than concern too.
“The up and down part of it is always concerning because you don’t want cars up in the air,” McDowell said. “You don’t want them to take off. You don’t want to see what we’ve seen here in years past, cars catching too much air and getting into the catchfence. I’m sure they’ll keep working on it and keep addressing it.
“I’m a little bummed that it happened in the same spot because Daytona International did such a great job to pave all that and take all the grass out and the car still took off. I think we can eliminate now that it was the grass that did it last time. It was more likely just the speed and angle because it was very similar to last year.”
This also comes one week after NASCAR added a second rear air deflector to the right side of the car in response to a Corey Lajoie blowover crash on Monday at Michigan International Speedway.
Logano was the most downtrodden on everything.
“This is a byproduct of this kind of racing,” said the two-time champion. “The shoves are so intense. The cars are so low and ridged, and out of control, when you start pushing. The give and take is gone at the end of these races.
“It just becomes a mess. We either need to make the cars handle better when they get pushed or make it to where they can’t get to each other (push) as easily. But, if we don’t do anything then we’re going to keep crashing.
“If this is what they want, then I guess that’s what we’re going to keep giving them. I don’t know what we’re looking for when it comes to speedway racing. It’s entertaining I guess.”