Sunday’s Daytona noticed essentially the most vehicles concerned in crashes in that occasion for the reason that 2019 race and ended a Daytona Speedweeks that noticed practically 100 autos within the Cup, Xfinity and Craftsman Truck Sequence concerned in accidents.
This 12 months’s Daytona 500 had 35 of the 41 vehicles within the race concerned in an accident primarily based on the NASCAR race report and knowledge from Racing Insights.
That’s essentially the most variety of vehicles in a crash within the Daytona 500 since 37 had been concerned in incidents within the 2019 race.
William Byron was operating seventh on the backstretch on the ultimate lap when the leaders wrecked Sunday. He escaped the chaos and went on to win the race for the second consecutive 12 months.
Denny Hamlin led on the backstretch of the ultimate lap earlier than contact brought on him to crash, ending his bid for a fourth Daytona 500 victory.
“It’s such a (expletive) crapshoot now,” Hamlin mentioned on his podcast “Actions Detrimental” of what racing at superspeedways has turn into “I hate that what is meant to be our most prestigious race, a showcase of heroes, is luck. It’s luck. I don’t care how else you need to say it.
“It’s luck. It’s luck as a result of … you simply must keep away from the wrecks. … I’ve grown actually, actually agitated with how we’ve gotten right here.”
Ryan Preece was amongst those that crashed in Sunday’s Daytona 500. His automotive went airborne. It marked the second time prior to now two years his automotive has gotten up within the air at Daytona Worldwide Speedway.
That Preece walked away from such an accident confirmed the deal with security NASCAR has had for years, however Preece doesn’t need to proceed to be in accidents the place his automotive will get off the bottom.
“I don’t know what the suitable factor to say proper now’s,” Preece mentioned after exiting the infield care heart Sunday, “however I feel the factor I need to say as a father, as a racer, is we preserve beating on a door hoping for a special end result.
“I feel we all know there’s an issue at superspeedways. I don’t need to be the instance of when it lastly will get any person. I don’t need it to be me. I’ve acquired a 2-year-old daughter. … One thing must be performed as a result of vehicles lifting off the bottom like that. That felt, truthfully, worse than Daytona in (August) ’23.”
NASCAR officers inspected the security parts of the automotive on the observe and had been scheduled to go to RFK Racing on Tuesday to look additional on the automotive, Elton Sawyer, NASCAR senior vp of competitors, mentioned Tuesday morning on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Since 2017, each Daytona 500 has had a minimum of 25 vehicles concerned in crashes. In that point the typical variety of vehicles in crashes per Daytona 500 is 31.
However it’s not simply the Daytona 500 that has seen quite a lot of vehicles wreck.
There have been 13 vehicles concerned in crashes within the two qualifying races Thursday evening, which means 48 Cup vehicles had been concerned in accidents this previous week.
That’s half the entire of 96 autos in accidents final week in Cup, Xfinity and Vehicles. There have been 30 vehicles concerned in crashes within the Xfinity race and 18 autos concerned within the Truck race.
The 96 autos in crashes this final week in NASCAR’s prime three collection was thee shy final 12 months’s complete.
From 2015-21, there have been a mean of 95.3 autos in accidents throughout Daytona Speedweeks in Cup, Xfinity and Vehicles. These numbers included the Conflict, the exhibition race that moved from Daytona after the 2021 season.
The variety of vehicles in crashes throughout Daytona Speedweeks noticed a short decline after the Conflict left. The primary two years (2022 and ’23) with out the Conflict, the typical variety of autos in a crash throughout Speedweeks was 69.5.
The previous two years has seen the typical variety of autos in a crash throughout Speedweeks climb to 97.5.
