The red flag is out at Pocono in Sunday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Pocono Green 225 after Justin Haley pounded the inside wall and launched across the track collecting Ryan Vargas, who had nowhere to go.
Stage 2 of the #PoconoGreen225 is underway and quickly back to yellow with a hard hit involving @Justin_Haley_ and @RyanVargas_23.
Both drivers were able to exit their vehicles under their own power. pic.twitter.com/ANT28z5ScD
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) June 27, 2021
Here are more looks of the accident:
A big hit for @Justin_Haley_, who comes back across the track and gets hit by @RyanVargas_23.
Both drivers were able to get out under their own power. #NASCAR // NBCSN pic.twitter.com/E9mdJxHK2T
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) June 27, 2021
Upon climbing from the car, Haley dropped onto his back to collect his breath, while Vargas stayed in his car while safety workers tended to him. This brought concern that Haley was potentially injured, but both drivers were able to walk away, and were checked and cleared at the infield care center.
“I’m good,” Haley said after walking out of the infield care center. “They cleared and evaluated and released me. So, really thankful NASCAR builds such safe race cars. Obviously, that was one of the hardest hits I’ve ever taken.”
While Vargas wasn’t injured, he was emotionally struggling after the crash.
“I’m fine. I just had nowhere to go. I feel awful for this team. It’s been a really tough start to the year, and it’s been a really good rebound lately. I hate that we wrecked with [Brian] Lear on the hood. I miss him a lot. And I just hate disappointing, and I feel like I did that today,” an emotional Vargas said while holding back tears.
An emotional @RyanVargas_23 at @PoconoRaceway.
Our thoughts are with the family of Brian Lear, a car chief for @JDMotorsports01 for many years, who died a few weeks ago. pic.twitter.com/KsBOAbroZw
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) June 27, 2021
The incident began when Haley and Sam Mayer, driving the No. 8 JR Motorsports machine, made contact, which sent Haley for a ride. After several hard impacts, the cars came to a stop and safety crews began to work.
Incredibly, Kyle Weatherman and several other drivers made incredible evasive maneuvers to avoid things being even worse, but this was still an incredibly hard crash.
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