Well that didn’t take long. Halfway through Saturday’s first practice at Daytona International Speedway. The session was for the 20 cars entered in Sunday’s NASCAR Clash a non-points race. The cars were in a pack heading down the backstretch when Chase Elliott seemed to get loose and fell back into the car of Ryan Newman. Newman spun sweeping up Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick.
The cars of Hamlin, Newman and Harvick was the only ones not able to continue and came to rest in the grass.
“It looked like the 9 car either washed up in front of me or drove up in front of me,” Newman said. “I’m not sure if he was driving or his spotter cleared him and he just didn’t have a chance to react, but he filled a hole that wasn’t there and kind of caused a mess.”
Hamlin’s car was damaged beyond repair while the cars of Newman and Harvick suffered only minor damage. Since the Clash is a non-points race NASCAR allowed the teams to have tires brought out to Newman and Harvick so they could drive their cars back to the garage. This allowed them to avoid going to a back-up car, something that many teams don’t have for the Clash.”
“I kind of got stuck in the mud there and they helped us out by letting us bring tires,” Harvick said. “It would have destroyed the car dragging it out of there, so I appreciate NASCAR helping us out.”
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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