You could just sense that it was going to happen. The action at the front of the screaming pack at Daytona International Speedway in Stage 2 of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 had been absolutely wild. For the majority of the Stage, drivers had skillfully driven three-wide all the way through the pack.
Unfortunately, on Lap 95, it all went wrong.
Ty Gibbs, who was attempting to gain the Stage 2 win from the outside lane, seemingly got a shove from his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell. The shove caused Gibbs to lose control. As Gibbs skidded down the track, he collided with the right rear of Ryan Blaney’s No. 12 car, which shot Blaney’s car head-on into the outside wall.
Here is a video of the terrifying crash:
Here is the absolutely INSANE impact that Ryan Blaney just took. Thankfully, he was able to walk away, sheesh. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/lCRN3gRP7G
— Toby Christie (@Toby_Christie) August 27, 2023
Here are some additional replays of the crash:
Here are some more looks of that big crash. Just… wow. That’s all. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/e5SbQkBWgo
— Toby Christie (@Toby_Christie) August 27, 2023
18 cars were piled into the crash, which promptly brought the red flag out in the race. Several of the drivers, who were hoping for a win in order to advance to the Playoffs, were swept up in this crash.
Following being evaluated and released from the infield care center, Blaney said he feels fine after the crash.
“Yeah, I’m okay. I don’t really know what happened. I saw the replay, and I’m guessing the No. 54 got turned into my right rear, and unfortunately we got into the fence. It stinks, a lot of cars got torn up,” Blaney said.
After getting another view of the replay, Blaney said, “Yeah, looks like he kind of got him in a weird spot. Yeah, that’s not fun. It stinks, our Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang was really fast. Came from the back to the front multiple times. Thought we made a good move to try to win the Stage. That stinks, nothing you can really do there.”
While the shove from Bell ultimately ended the night for Gibbs, and with it his Playoff hopes, Gibbs wanted to take time to thank Bell for the incredible pushes throughout the entire race on Saturday.
“Yeah, I am [okay]. I felt like I was getting a great push. I feel like all of our teammates were working really well together tonight. I may have got a push in a bad spot, but we were going for the stage win,” Gibbs said. “I want to thank Christopher (Bell) for all of the pushes he gave me, I really do.”
The drivers involved in this crash included Ross Chastain, Austin Cindric, Austin Dillon, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Brennan Poole, AJ Allmendinger, Chris Buescher, Christopher Bell, Harrison Burton, William Byron, Riley Herbst, Tyler Reddick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Alex Bowman, and Ty Gibbs.
