The 65th annual Daytona 500 had been a fierce, yet clean race. But then on lap 118 of Sunday’s race, things got a bit wild.
Tyler Reddick, who was running around fourth near the front of the field, received a shove from Kevin Harvick. The push was a bit too intense and sent Reddick skidding down into Ryan Blaney’s No. 12 Ford Mustang and Martin Truex Jr.’s No. 19 Toyota Camry.
Blaney definitely suffered more damage than Truex in the incident.
Reddick’s car skidded back up into the outside wall in Turn 4. As Reddick’s hopes of winning the race faded, other drivers piled into the crash as well.
Trouble. Here's what happened. #DAYTONA500 pic.twitter.com/YlNExBriS9
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) February 19, 2023
In all, eight drivers were involved. Those who received contact in the crash included Harvick, Reddick, Truex, Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, Erik Jones, Kyle Larson, and Daniel Suarez.
After being checked and released from the infield care center, Reddick explained that the contact from Harvick wasn’t very aggressive. He described it as a push, not a bump.
“No, it wasn’t really like a bump,” Reddick explained. “It was just pushing and just came around on me.”
Reddick feels the lack of a bulk of drafting practice likely played a hand in him not being prepared for what his car would do when taking a shove from behind.
“Yes because I hadn’t really led any line really and received a push in the corner or received a push down the back like that,” Reddick said. “So, that was kind of the first experience of having it all of speedweeks, honestly. I didn’t know how I was going to handle it, didn’t expect it to go the way that it did.”
As a result of the crash, Jones, Elliott, and Reddick have joined Ty Dillon, who had an engine failure on lap 27, as drivers who are out of the race.
“I tried to slow down good enough to miss it,” Elliott explained. “I felt like we were all but stopped. It looked like [Larson] and [Jones] looked like they spun to the apron to try to scatter and give themselves some room and when they ended up meeting some racetrack, I was the first lucky winner to come through.”
This race was the first official points-paying race for Reddick with the 23XI Racing team and the race also marks Kevin Harvick’s final Daytona 500 as Harvick is set to retire from NASCAR Cup Series competition at the end of the 2023 season.
Larson, who started the race from the second position, went for a spin through the infield grass but looked like he avoided incurring much damage.
