
By David Morgan, Associate Editor
HAMPTON, Ga. – When all was said and done Saturday night at EchoPark Speedway, the number of cars involved in an incident far outweighed those that made it to the finish of the Quaker State 400.
The majority of those cars saw their night go awry in back-to-back crashes to end Stage 1 and begin Stage 2.
At the end of Stage 1, it was a spin by Christopher Bell, who just lost control of his car all on his own that would wind up involving five different drivers, namely Ryan Blaney, as he would finish the night dead last in the running order in 40th place.
“I got caught up in a wreck. I don’t know. That’s per usual this year. We get caught up in someone else’s mess,” said Blaney.
“I saw a couple guys spinning and slowing. I got to the apron and there was really nowhere else for me to go but the apron. I tried to get there and get clear of it, but they kind of came down and got me in the right-rear and I ended up in the fence. There was no missing that one.”
The No. 20 spins in front of the field and collects @Blaney and @austindillon3!
Huge In-Season Challenge implications here! pic.twitter.com/OIU77nuqzk
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) June 29, 2025
Stage 1 would end under yellow, with the field re-racking for the Stage 2 restart, but they wouldn’t even make it a full lap after the restart before Turn 3 turned into an absolute junkyard, with nearly half the field involved.
The crash kicked off mid-pack as the field was getting up to speed down the backstretch with everyone pushing trying to get as much as they could when Denny Hamlin’s Toyota was seen spinning in a cloud of smoke with absolute carnage taking place behind him.
When all was said and done, 23 cars were collected, taking out all but two of the drivers that have won races this year, paving the way for a new winner at the end of the night. Which is exactly what happened with Chase Elliott scoring the victory and punching his ticket to the Playoffs.
“All of us were in the top line, pushing off Turn 2 and some zigged, some zagged. Most crashed,” said Hamlin.
“I don’t know. I was on the bumper of the 42 [John Hunter Nemechek]. He was on the bumper of somebody else in front of him. And we all just kind of…speedway pushing, zigging and zagging and we all crashed. That’s part of it.”
A huge incident involving many drivers entering Turn 3! pic.twitter.com/SUqVofDprQ
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) June 29, 2025
Others involved had more of a critical take of the incident, blasting those that triggered it for pushing too hard, too early in the race.
“We just see guys pushing like dummies early down the backstretch. And I just come in here and get pushed into it and come out of the smoke and every corner of my Mustang was knocked off of it,” said LaJoie.
“Unfortunately, that was the end of our day. I don’t know what we’re doing. We just started the second stage, I don’t know why we’re pushing like we’re damn bumper cars at Frankie’s Fun Park.
“That’s not to be surprised. I think there’s a lot of guys that don’t make wise decisions driving these things on speedways and it waded up about 10 of us.”
Joey Logano chalked it up to just being the nature of superspeedway racing and these kinds of crashes being all but inevitable.
“I still don’t know exactly how it started. It wasn’t the best of replays, but it was total chaos,” said Logano.
“Cars were sideways and on the brakes. I got hit from every corner possible. I was right in the middle of the whole thing. It’s a real bummer. What do you do? It’s just part of the game sometimes. It’s just the crappy part of our racing sometimes. You get caught up in something you couldn’t do anything about.”
Winner a week ago at Pocono, was in the garage for an extended period of time trying to fix his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and get back in the race, but the repairs were all for naught with NASCAR not allowing them back out due to the damage being too severe.
“I don’t know how bad our damage was,” said Briscoe. “They were fixing it, and we were about ready to go, and I guess NASCAR came over there and saw that our chassis was broke or bent or something and were like, you can’t go back out. So, kind of a waste of 30 minutes working on it. Just unfortunate night for our Bass Pro Shops Toyota.”
William Byron, who entered the night as the regular season points leader and still holds that title despite his 37th place finish, echoed the others drivers comments on it being far too early in the race for that type of crash to take place.
“It’s just a bummer that early in the race,” said Byron.
“I don’t really know what was going on. We were getting up to speed and everyone was throwing a lot of blocks or something, I don’t know. It was fun out there, honestly. The first stage was fun. Handling really mattered. I thought my No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet was good. I thought our team was calling a great race and we were doing everything we could do.”
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