RICHMOND, Virginia – In one of the bizarrest incidents seen since Juan Pablo Montoya crashed into the jet dryer during the 2012 Daytona 500 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, Leavine Family Racing driver Michael McDowell struck a safety truck during Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway.
During the fifth caution of the race, with approximately 110 laps remaining, McDowell made contact with a safety truck on the backstretch, entering Turn 3 causing significant rear-end damage to McDowell’s No. 95 Ford Fusion.
Six safety workers in the vehicle had just finished clearing the debris and closed their doors, when the tail of McDowell’s car connected with the corner of the truck and tore the rear end off the race car.
Once the race resumed, the safety workers visited the infield care center, but no one was hurt. McDowell said he wasn’t pre-occupied or looking down at his gauges, but simply following David Gilliland when he abruptly veered to the left.
“It was my mistake, obviously,” McDowell told USA Today Sports. “I’m driving it, so I take full responsibility for it. But it definitely caught me off guard and it was a surprise. I didn’t know it was even sitting there.”
McDowell, running a partial schedule with LFR this season said the cars in front of him quickly jumped on their brakes, steered to the right, then started coming back down the track. McDowell added that he had little time to react as Gilliland obstructed his view.
Insisting he wasn’t going that fast at the time of the impact, the 30-year-old said the corner-on-corner collision made the damage worse than it appeared.
“Obviously I’m thankful nobody got hurt, embarrassed for my team and it was my mistake driving,” he said. “A lot happened at once. Everybody jumped on the brakes and I just didn’t have time to react.”
McDowell, his crew chief and spotter were summoned to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series hauler following the race to discuss the incident.
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