Regardless of anything else that happens in this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series EchoPark Texas Grand Prix, let’s just be thankful Martin Truex Jr. and Cole Custer were able to walk away from a scary crash in a lap 25 crash in Stage 2.
It appeared that Michael McDowell slowed ahead of Truex, but due to the amount of standing water, Truex was unable to see what was coming. Truex slammed into McDowell. As Truex’s No. 19 car limped around, Cole Custer could not see and slammed into the back of Truex’s car at full speed.
This launched Truex into the air, and sent Custer hard into the guard rail.
Here is video of the crash:
A huge and frightening hit for Cole Custer and Martin Truex Jr. at Circuit of The Americas. pic.twitter.com/dGmCoXQPx6
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) May 23, 2021
Here is a slow-mo view of Truex’s car taking off after the impact from Custer:
Insanity.@COTA | #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/15rXDfJymZ
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) May 23, 2021
Custer climbed from his fiery wreckage, and expressed disappointment about not being able to see in the ultra-wet conditions.
“Yeah, I’m all good,” Custer said. “It didn’t hurt as much as I thought it was going to be. It’s just you can’t see anything. It’s pretty bad, I mean, you can’t see a foot in front of your car.”
Truex was able to also climb from his horribly mangled car, and he too was quite frustrated with the dangerous conditions that they were driving in.
“The only way to describe it is that you can’t see anything,” Truex explained. “So, I mean, it’s just — You just mash the gas and going through the gears on the backstretch praying that nobody is going to be there. And all of a sudden, I saw a taillight flash, and I was already in through him, so, it happens that fast going that fast.
“And then my first thought was once I hit that guy, was to stay in the gas, because I know they’re coming from behind and literally next thing I know, I get drilled. There’s just nothing you can do in those situations.”
This accident caused a red flag for NASCAR to take air titans down the backstretch at Circuit of the Americas.
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