NSCS: Big Crash Takes Out Major Contenders in Dover

During The AAA 400 Drive of Autism at Dover International Speedway there was a huge wreck towards the end of the race. It ended up taking out 18 cars in total.

It started on the restart with 60 laps to go, Jimmie Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Lowes Chevrolet, didn’t get restarted which caused Martin Truex to get into the back of him, which caused Kevin Harvick to get into the back of Truex which pushed him further into Johnson, which made Johnson spin and collected the rest of the 15 cars.

Jimmie Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet, stated it was a transmission issue that caused the wreck. He couldn’t shift the gear at restart.

“As soon as I went from second and tried to go to third, I kind of got up into the neutral gate of the transmission and didn’t even go to third,” Johnson said. “It stopped before it ever went to third. And then I tried fourth and third and fourth and eventually I got hit from behind. There was a long pause there where I was trying to, I thought maybe I missed a shift; but it wouldn’t go in gear. Martin (Truex, Jr.) was good and patient with me. He gave me a couple of opportunities to try to find a gear and it just locked out and wouldn’t go into gear for some reason. It was still that way at the end and I couldn’t drive the car and I don’t think I’m all that damaged, but unfortunately I lost a shot at winning and I hate to see all those cars tore up.”

Johnson also stated that the issue came out of nowhere and he didn’t have any prior to the restart.

“And in my career, I’ve never had a transmission do that to me,” Johnson said. “I’ve had them kind of lock out of reverse at a test session or even in the garage area or something, but to lockout and not go across the gate and then no gear available is something I’ve never had before.”

Rodney Childers, crew chief of the No. 4 Jimmie Johns Chevrolet stated how well Harvick did in coming back from being 20th to fourth before the caution.

“You had a couple of guys stay out and caused a big mess on the restart and got tore up, Childers said   “The guys did good on pit road to keep it out there and keep it going and at least get a decent finish out of it.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr, driver of the No.88 Nationwide Chevrolet, stated he was fine despite shaking his hand a little post-wreck in the car. He had ran in the top-10 all day after starting in the second spot.

“I didn’t,” Earnhardt Jr said. “They were just stopping in front of us. I thought I was clear on the outside, but the No. 13 (Casey Mears) got hooked and came into us. They started wrecking way up in front of us. I couldn’t really tell what was going on. I got to the outside and thought we had it missed, but the No. 13 (Casey Mears) came up the track, he got collected in it.”

Joey Lagano, driver of the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, states he didn’t see much of anything and had nowhere to go.

“When you are stacked up on the restart like that there isn’t much to be able to see at all,” Logano said. “Unfortunately it looked like the 48 had trouble getting going and it stacked us up. I tried checking up and going to the bottom like we were going to miss it and got hit from behind and that sent me into it more. Now we need a new radiator. We have been the victim of circumstances the last few weeks. It is what it is. I am not going to say it was bad luck. We put ourselves in position to be back there on our pit stop. It is our fault. We have to smarten up and get a little better at every little area. We had a decent car. We weren’t the fastest car but we were a top-five car for sure. Things happen.”

Greg Biffle, driver of the No. 16 Kleen Performance Ford, states he is frustrated because he had a good car maybe a top-12 car and to get collected in an accident like this is just horrible for the team.

“I didn’t see anythingm” Biffle said. “I just saw cars stopped in front of me and there was just no way we could stop. The spotter was telling me to go low, which I am not sure if that was the right move either. I don’t know if there is anything I could have done. I just tried to stop as quickly as I could. There was just no time to stop I guess.”

Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 43 Smithfield Ford, is pretty certain the resulted in a broken pinky finger.

“It just stinks we all got stacked up like that.” Almirola said. “I banged up my hand. I think I may have a broken finger, it is pretty sore and swollen. We worked really hard to get back on the lead lap and we were actually making a lot of progress it just took us all race to get back up on that lead lap. I hate that our day is going to turn out like that. That is a shame.”

Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 Pedigree Toyota, said car was handling poorly before the wreck accured either because they missed something or something broke on the car. But he had a hard time holding on and making laps. Then he got caught up in the big one.

“Just trying to check everything out and see if there was anything that was broke, but obviously now there’s a lot of things broke and hard to decipher what we can figure out and learn about what we might have had happen there today,” Busch said. “Just a tough break. I have no idea what happened. It was just a may lay in front of me and everybody was going every which way. There were a couple games on restarts today from a few people that I saw and guys get hit and get squirrely and as soon as they get hit and get squirrely, it’s pretty much everybody piles in after that because you can’t checkup that fast and you get run over from behind because everybody is so tight.”

Martin Truex Jr, driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Toyota, was the able to recover from almost being collected in the wreck to finish in the top-10.

“Our guys did a really good job today,” Truex said. ” I thought really all weekend, we had a new package, science project kind of deal Friday and yesterday and went with what we know for Happy Hour. At the beginning of the race we were a fifth, sixth-place car and just kept working on it, kept working on it and when we needed to be the best car, I think we were. Just one of those deals, wrong place, wrong time. Frustrating, but we got a top-10 out of it so not too bad. The guys on pit road did a great job fixing it. Just hate that it happened. I wanted to be fourth on that restart, but I didn’t want to be fourth that bad. I should have been third so maybe I should have not let the 19 beat us off pit road. I don’t know how you can see those things coming. All in all good day, just bad finish.”