CONCORD, NORTH CAROLINA - MAY 28: Zane Smith, driver of the #21 Good Sam Chevrolet, and Austin Hill, driver of the #16 United Rentals Toyota, lead the field during the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 28, 2021 in Concord, North Carolina. (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images)
NASCAR takes fault in delayed caution resulting in scary crash (Video)
Shane Walters
Trey Hutchens nearly stopped on the track before Johnny Sauter drove right into the back of him at Charlotte Motor Speedway
On Friday night, the NASCAR Truck Series took the stage in Charlotte, North Carolina. The division was the highlight of Friday’s schedule at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Trey Hutchens slowed in turn three and coasted to turn four. At the same time, Matt Crafton’s machine entered the pit lane with smoke billowing from his machine. That diverted the eyes of NASCAR officials. Meanwhile, the dark truck of Hutchens was all but stopped in the middle of the track and the green flag was still out.
Johnny Sauter was in a side by side battle. As he exited turn four, he was hit with a road block. Sauter drove right into the back of Hutchens in the scary incident.
All drivers exited the infield care center without injury.
“I cut a tire into three. I tried to slow down to get to pit road,” Trey Hutchens told Dustin Long.
“The hole closed up. Then, I ended up slowed on the front stretch. The No. 13 just ran into the back of us.
“They were coming pretty hard,” Hutchens added. “They probably needed to throw the yellow a little sooner.”
NASCAR comments on the late caution
“Obviously, the caution was slow in coming,” Scott Miller said via Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.
“There’s no question about that. We’ve had our internal debrief, obviously, that night; the next day before the Xfinity race.”
“A few things played into that. No excuses.”
Miller added, “With it happening simultaneously to the 88 coming down pit road, I think most of our attention was focused on the 88 right then trying to determine whether or not we had potential fluid out there on the race track.”
“Our turn spotter did see the 14 up against the wall. The 14 made a move toward pit road and the turn spotter thought he made it to pit road before he made it outside of view. Kind of perfect storm there a little bit.”
“No excuse again, but the paint job on the 14 was a super dark purple and the truck got up against the wall. Our flagman didn’t see it sitting there. And it led to a very, very unfortunate, unfortunate accident.”
He further explained, “A lot of things stacked up right there. Caution should have been out, not denying that. A lot of things led to that.”
NASCAR safety team
The safety team was at the car of Hutchens in 45 seconds. Meanwhile, it took 90 seconds to reach the truck of Sauter.
“Responding to two incidents is always tricky when we’re trying to get the field captured and all that,” Miller said.
He added, “We could have also done a better job there. Got to the 14 in plenty of time. The 13, the response time probably wasn’t 100 percent of what it should have been, but there’s a lot of mechanics and a lot of moving parts in getting all that done. Every time we have one of these, we learn how to do things better.”
Trey Hutchens, Johnny Sauter Crash Video Charlotte Motor Speedway