DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – With the threat of inclement weather approaching at the start of Stage 3, a majority of the cars near the front of the field in Sunday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 were involved in a major crash at Lap 118 in the scheduled 160-lap postponed race at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.
As cars were roaring into Turn 1, race lead Austin Dillon moved down the track in apparent attempt to block Clint Bowyer, the two cars connected and triggered an 18-car pile-up.
“They was pretty bad, man and, then he just kept coming,” Bowyer said after being released from the infield care center. “I had a big run and he tried to block me, I got off him and he kept trying to block it.
“It’s pretty unfortunate for us. It’s a mess that the 3 (Dillon) created. The kid was doing everything he could do to stay in the lead, it was just pretty foolish. It was pretty early in the race and a lot of racing left to be aggressively blocking or whatever the hell that was.
Bower added, “You want to blame him. If it would have been anybody else there, they would have probably done the same thing. We had a fast hot-rod, had a good run and was going for the lead and it’s just the nature of this kind of racing. “It sucks. You want to be pissed off, frustrated and blame somebody, but at the end of the day it’s just part of racing.”
Dillon said he was doing everything in his power to win the race, especially with the weather conditions deteriorating.
“Originally, off of turn four, I thought me and the 9 would be able to get by the 11. But the 9 wasn’t clear,” said Dillon. “I really thought it was urgent with the lighting and the rain coming. So I jumped up there and had a good push from the 14 and my plan as soon as I cleared the 11 was to cut left and get down again to get with my Chevy teammates. It’s really unfortunate because I had a really fast American Ethanol Chevy.”
Despite his finish, Dillon said he was proud of the effort and chalked up the crash to typical superspeedway racing.
“It was cool to win the Stage,” he added. “Just trying to get a race win. That is all it is. I got turned a little bit left when he went left and it kind of shot me down there and I just kept coming left. I mean, its part of this kind of racing. I was being aggressive and trying to keep the lead, and that is what you get, its part of it. I just thought I would try and keep it up front. We had a fast car and I am really proud of the guys. Hate it went that way and wished we could have worked with the Chevys to finish off what we started.”
In addition to Dillon and Bowyer, other drivers involved in the accident included: Ryan Blaney, Chris Alex Bowman, Buescher, Kyle Busch, Matt DiBenedetto, Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin, Erik Jones, Parker Kligerman, Kyle Larson, Joey Logano, Michael McDowell, Paul Menard Ryan Preece, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Martin Truex Jr., Darrell Wallace Jr.,
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