It took just six laps for the NASCAR Truck Series field to trigger a multiple vehicle melee that eliminated several teams from contention before the racing could truly begin.
The aggression level was high from the onset, with bump drafts aplenty.
The pack reached the backstretch and three-time champion Matt Crafton received a shove from behind via Christian Eckes. That sent Crafton sideways and into Layne Riggs. Crafton bounced off Riggs and into the path of the field, collecting Tanner Gray, Stewart Friesen, Thad Moffitt and Jake Garcia.
Officially involved were the following drivers: Nick Sanchez, Grant Enfinger, Jake Garcia, Tanner Gray, Ty Dillon, Keith McGee, Lawless Alan, Layne Riggs, Thad Moffitt, Stewart Friesen, Rajah Caruth and Matt Crafton.
Garcia, Dillon, Moffitt and Riggs were eliminated from the race as a result.
Cup Series veteran Ty Dillon has returned to the Truck Series this year after a decade long hiatus and says he never experienced aggression that early at Daytona like this before.
“It was chaos,” Dillon said. “Total craziness. You just have a lot of guys in good trucks that haven’t done this before. They’re faster and no one really drafts anymore. We don’t put rookies in a good spot to learn.
“That’s what it looked like. I’ve never seen anything like that behind the wheel, four laps into a race. From my experience, I knew something was going to happen. I got myself to the bottom and hopefully have a spot to bail and sure enough it happened.”
He drove into the grass, a section that will soon be repaved after this week, but it tore his truck up.
“If that grass wasn’t there, I think I drive through it clean, it knocked the front tires out of my hand. I was trying to catch it with the throttle. I thought I could catch it but then the crash catched up to me.”
Rookie Thad Moffitt didn’t understand the aggression.
“Just a lot of pushing,” said the grandson of Richard Petty. “It’s too early to be pushing like that. (Crafton) got pushed and I saw him bounce off (Riggs) and the next thing you know, we’re wrecking left and right.
“Ty drove down and Lawless came up and came up a lot quicker than I anticipated and came across the nose.”
Fellow rookie Layne Riggs, a decorated short track champion and son of NASCAR veteran Scott Riggs, echoed the disappointment in the racing.
“I experienced a lot of fun for five laps, the truck was super fast, but I don’t understand why we were pushing so hard in the outside lane that early in the race so that it could turn somebody so hard.”
Riggs said he’s disappointed because he wanted to learn in this first race of his first full-time season.
“Not happy at all,” Riggs said. “But this is not an indication of how our season is going to go. But honestly, I looked at the replay and there wasn’t anything I could have done at all.”
Why did Dillon feel like this was unlike anything he has ever experienced?
“It was just chaos,” Dillon said. “I don’t know. There were just trucks going everywhere with no plan. Maybe it’s just me getting used to the Truck Series again and I haven’t ran these trucks in awhile but as you get more experience as a driver, you get a plan for what you want to do in these races and there was a lot of inexperience tonight and maybe they were just in over their heads and just needed to settle in and calm down.
“Maybe that’s on me for not having a better game plan of what to expect with these truck drivers and being in the middle of it right away but we had a game plan of trying to score stage points and it cost of a truck tonight.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.