ONE of the biggest wrecks of the season took place in Nascar’s Atlanta race on Saturday night.
After nearly 70 laps of racing, everything came crashing down in one massive collision.
Nascar saw a massive crash at Atlanta on Saturday night[/caption]
Half of the 40-car field was involved in the wreck[/caption]
On lap 69 of the Ambetter Health 400, Denny Hamlin got turned sideways, setting off a multicar collision to end stage one.
That collision turned into a domino effect, taking out 20 other drivers along the way.
That was half of the 40-car field, and almost a fourth of the cars were put out of commission.
Nine cars ended up going back to the garage either for repairs or to park for the rest of the night.
An unofficial tally placed Ross Chastain, Ryan Preece, Joey Logano, William Byron, Daniel Suarez, Carson Hocevar, Kyle Larson, Chase Briscoe, Corey LaJoie, Denny Hamlin, Cody Ware, Brad Keselowski, Josh Berry, Noah Gragson, Justin Haley and Austin Cindric in the wreck.
Berry, Chastain, Suarez, Logano, Byron, Cindric and LaJoie all sustained too much damage to resume racing.
All drivers involved were checked and later released from the infield care center.
The amount of wrecked cars led to some chaos on the roads to the garage area.
At one point there was even a traffic jam of tow trucks trying to get cars into garages.
Nascar fans were baffled by the sheer size of Saturday’s wreck and shared their thoughts on social media.
“Half the garage is in the garage. Gotta love these gimmicks,” one fan said.
“Holy guacamole,” another fan said.
“Do people in this sport even know how to drive??” a third fan said.
“This is so embarrassing,” a fourth fan said.
“Crash fest of the year,” a fifth fan said.
Atlanta was the first race of Nascar’s In-Season Challenge, meaning the wreck led to some major upsets.
While drivers were racing for the win, they were also racing to beat other individual drivers in a tournament-style bracket.
Hamlin was the No. 1 seed, but ended up being eliminated by No. 32 seed Ty Dillon because of the wreck.
No. 31 seed Noah Gragson also upset No. 2 seed Briscoe from the crash.
