- Corey LaJoie slams “bumper cars” mentality on superspeedways
- Joey Logano says: “Sometimes you’re the ball, sometimes you’re the bat”
- Briscoe and others question aggressive pushing early in Stage 2
The NASCAR Cup Series Quaker State 400 at Echo Park Speedway erupted into chaos on Lap 69 after Denny Hamlin made contact with John Hunter Nemechek, triggering a 23-car pileup that halted the race.
Hamlin’s touch sent Nemechek into the outside wall, which quickly set off a chain reaction. Carbon fiber flew through the air, smoke filled the track, and the front stretch was blocked with wreckage. NASCAR was forced to throw the red flag during Stage 2 to clear the damage.
Among those collected in the wreck were big names like Brad Keselowski, Ryan Preece, Joey Logano, Kyle Larson, Chase Briscoe, and Corey LaJoie. All affected drivers were sent to the infield care center for evaluation.
Joey Logano, who started the race from pole position, was taken out entirely and expressed his frustration: “I was in the middle of it and I haven’t seen a replay to even know what happened. Cars were sideways and you hit the brakes and everyone is just running into each other. Just a speedway wreck. Wrong place at the wrong time. Tried to win the stage and we couldn’t get that done, and you got to pay the piper when you go to the back there.”
After seeing the replay, he added: “The whole field wrecked, and I’m just in the soup there. Oh my gosh — look at that. Oh, that’s horrible. Sometimes you’re the ball, sometimes you’re the bat. Tonight we were the ball.”
Chase Briscoe also found himself eliminated, despite his team’s best efforts to repair the damage: “Yeah, I don’t know how bad our damage was. They were fixing it, and we were about ready to go, and I guess NASCAR came over there and saw that our chassis was broke or bent or something and were like, you can’t go back out. So, kind of a waste of 30 minutes working on it. Just unfortunate night for our Bass Pro Shops Toyota.”
Corey LaJoie offered a blunt assessment after reviewing the replay: “We see people pushing like dummies early, and then I just come in here and get pushed into it. I come out of the smoke and every corner on my Mustang was knocked off of it. Unfortunately, that was the end of my day.”
He added: “I don’t know what we’re doing. We just started the second stage. I don’t know why we’re pushing like we’re damn bumper cars at Frankie’s fun park. That’s not to be surprised. I think there’s a lot of guys who don’t make wise decisions driving these things on speedways.”
The crash completely altered the landscape of the race, knocking out top contenders and shifting momentum heading into the second half. NASCAR will no doubt review the incident closely, but for many drivers, the damage has already been done.
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