Watch the big one at EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway)
Tonight, the NASCAR Cup Series is racing in Atlanta, Georgia. Moments ago, a big crash collected over half the field on lap 69 of the 160 lap Quaker State 400.
On the opening lap in stage two, Chase Elliott led the field into turn three. But, the field closed on him in a hurry.
As the second row checked up just ahead of the corner, so did the third row. By the time it got to the fourth row, the window for lifting off the throttle narrowed. John Hunter Nemechek lifted and he was turned by Denny Hamlin.
Watch the Atlanta crash video below.
Nemechek bounced off the outside wall and was spun across the track. As the field came into the scene, most of them were collected.
23 cars of the 40 in the field were collected in the crash.
Drivers Involved: Ross Chastain; Corey LaJoie; Austin Cindric; Austin Dillon; Noah Gragson; Kyle Larson; Brad Keselowski; Kyle Busch; Ty Dillon; Denny Hamlin; Chase Briscoe; Josh Berry; Joey Logano; William Byron; John Hunter Nemechek; Erik Jones; Alex Bowman; Cody Ware; Ryan Preece; Michael McDowell; Carson Hocevar; BJ McLeod; Daniel Suarez
The race is still ongoing at the time that this story is published.
NASCAR TV schedule for Atlanta
NASCAR drivers comment after the crash
Denny Hamlin stated over the radio, “That probably got like half the field, didn’t it?”
Hamlin later told TNT Sports, “Some zigged. Some zagged. Most crashed. Now we go watch the rest of the race.”
Ty Gibbs asked over the team radio, “Do I have any teammates still out here?”
Corey LaJoie comments to TNT Sports, “I come out of the smoke and every corner on my Mustang was knocked off of it. Unfortunately, that was the end of our day. I don’t know what we’re doing. I don’t know why we’re pushing like bumper cars at Frankie’s Fun Park.”
Joey Logano comments, “The whole field wrecked. I’m just in the soup there. Oh, that’s horrible. It could have been a bad push, hard to say. Sometimes you’re the ball. Sometimes you’re the bat. Today, we were the ball.”
Chase Briscoe stated, “We were about to go back out. NASCAR told us our chassis is broke. We can’t go back out.”
Many teams are frantically working to make repairs. Under updated rules, teams are allowed to repair cars in the garage after a crash.
This race is the first of a five-race mid-season challenge. The winner of the bracket challenge will collect $1M.
