After his impressive runner-up result at the Chicago Street Course in July, the opportunity for Justin Haley to score a surprise victory Sunday at Indianapolis has been hampered, after a major accident on the second lap of the Verizon 200.
Haley, driving for Kaulig Racing, was running inside the top-15 when contact from Joey Logano at the exit of Turn 5 sent the No. 31 hurdling toward the tire barriers, which he hit with significant force.
The incident happened at a portion of the track where side-by-side racing rarely works in the favor of everybody, as seen by the second-lap incident in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series event.
Despite what looked like extensive damage to Haley’s vehicle, the Indiana native was able to return to the race with a patched-up LeafFilter-sponsored entry, just one lap off the pace of the leaders.
That was HUGE for @Justin_Haley_.
Pretty early in the going to be racing that aggressively, much less in a corner you can rarely make side-by-side racing work.@KauligRacing working to repair the No. 31. #NASCAR
— Joseph Srigley (@joe_srigley) August 13, 2023
Both Haley and Logano were able to clear the Damaged Vehicle Policy (DVP) by meeting the minimum speed and continuing in the event.
