DAYTONA BEACH, Florida – NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Austin Dillon took a vicious hit into the catchfence, as the Coke Zero 400 took the checkered flag at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway Monday morning in a race won by Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Contact between Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick coming to the start-finish line ignited a multi-car accident which saw Dillon’s No. 3 Chevrolet sail into the air, launch over two lanes of cars and connect with the frontstretch catchfence, bottom-side first and destroying it. Television replays shows most of the debris from Dillon’s car not making into the grandstands.
After landing back onto the race track, Dillon’s car came to an abrupt stop, where crew members from Earnhardt’s team raced to Dillon’s aid. The Richard Childress Racing driver walked away from the crash and waved to the crowd.
“I am just going to be really sore,” said Dillon. “It got my tailbone pretty good and my arm. Should be fine, just go ice it up and get ready for Kentucky. But just thank the good Lord for taking care of me and for what NASCAR has done to make the sport this much safer. I just hope everybody in the stands is all right. That is the next biggest concern. Just praying for everybody and glad the good Lord looked out for me tonight.”
Dillon, the 2014 Daytona 500 pole sitter gave his recollection on how the incident transpired.
“You know the 11 got turned by the 4 across the start/finish line and I thought the race was going to be over right there,” recalled Dillon. “We were almost there and I was just pushing the 24 and the next thing I knew was that I was looking at my roof for a long time. I thought it was all over when I was sliding there and the 2 came in and really got me. So it was a wicked ride but thank the good Lord above for taking care of me.”
NBC reported that three fans were being attended to after the crash for minor injuries.
Visibly concerned, Earnhardt talked about the incident in Victory Lane.
“That scared the hell out of me,” he said. “I’ll be honest with you. I saw the whole thing happen. I was looking in the mirror the whole last lap and I saw (Hamlin) get turned, I guess that’s how it started.
“That was just terrifying to watch. You know a wreck like that was a high potential for someone to get injured and you saw the car get high and into the fence and you just worry about everyone else in the grandstand and you just don’t want to see that happen.”
Jimmie Johnson, who finished second, said he feared the absolute worst after watching the carnage unfold in his mirror.
“Great performance, happy to be 1 2, but clearly thinking about the accident that happened and the people in the stands,” said Johnson. “It sounds like things are well out there, which is shocking. I’m shocked that Austin Dillon is even alive, what he went through. Just a frightening moment. I saw it in the mirror, and man, I expected the worst when I came back around.”
Daytona is in the midst of a 400-million dollar reconstruction project known as Daytona Rising. Part of the project includes remodeling the grandstands. The portion of the stands, where Dillon’s crash occurred was in a completed second of the remodel and is placed further back from the track than its prior configuration.
The incident looked homogenous to Geoffrey Bodine’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series wreck in 2000 at Daytona or most recently Kyle Larson’s XFINITY crash in 2013. Like their crashes, the impact tore an incredibly large hole in the catchfence and ripped the engine block from Dillon’s car. All that remained from Saturday’s XFINITY Series winner car was the roll cage encasing the cockpit and it came to rest upside down at the end of pit road after being hit hard by Brad Keselowski’s car.
NASCAR said that Dillon’s car would be transported back to their research and development center in Concord, North Carolina for post-crash analysis.
Joie Chitwood III informed the media shortly before 4:00 a.m. that 13 fans were attended to. Eight of them declined treatment, four received onsite medical attention while the other was transported to a local hospital in stable condition.
“I’m really proud of the fact that the fence worked and the additional safety enhancements of the Daytona Rising project did its job, as well,” Chitwood said. “We’ll take this situation, we’ll learn from it, we’ll analyze it, and we’ll round up our engineering team and see if there’s any additional things we can learn to get better the next time. Really proud of the effort of our team and who responded and that the fence worked and that the enhancements of the Daytona Rising project worked, as well.”
The most dominant car won Monday morning at Daytona, but Earnhardt said that didn’t matter after seeing the accident in his rear-view mirror. What mattered to him was everyone was okay.
And thankfully, the safety components from the catchfence to the race car did its job in a situation that could have turned out tragically worse.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
