The 12-car wreck on Lap 198 of Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway changed the race for several drivers. It ended the race of Chase Elliott, who got tagged by Kyle Busch exiting Turn 4. The wreck was triggered by Busch getting in the back of Chase Briscoe, stacking up the field behind them in Turn […]
The 12-car wreck on Lap 198 of Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway changed the race for several drivers. It ended the race of Chase Elliott, who got tagged by Kyle Busch exiting Turn 4.
The wreck was triggered by Busch getting in the back of Chase Briscoe, stacking up the field behind them in Turn 3. Elliott initially made it through the carnage before Busch turned him, resulting in Elliott hitting the outside wall head-on.
From an optics standpoint, this didn’t look good for Busch, Freddie Kraft said on the “Door Bumper Clear” podcast. Kraft, spotter for Bubba Wallace, added it wasn’t intentional on Busch’s part.
“That was a wild wreck. Kyle Busch’s give a f*ck broke for a minute there,” Kraft said. “The 5 [Kyle Larson] comes down on the 19 [Briscoe], I think the 19 was cutting the 5 a break and the 8 [Busch] didn’t realize it [and got in the back of the 19]. … I don’t think Kyle did anything intentional, it was just a bad look.
“Optically, not good because he goes in there and turns the 19, comes out of the wreck and hooks the 9. It’s like what the hell is going on? Somebody said did Kyle Busch just rage quit?”
Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott collide at Richmond
Busch’s No. 8 Chevrolet somehow didn’t sustain much damage. He found a way to finish 16th, while Elliott posted his first DNF of the season. Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports said it looked like Busch simply didn’t see Elliott underneath him.
“The 9 [Elliott] — there was somebody underneath the 9 and he couldn’t go further down,” Pockrass said. “I don’t know whether Kyle didn’t think he was there or who knew how much control he had. The weird thing was Kyle’s car wasn’t damaged a whole lot. He was able to keep going despite hitting everybody.”
Elliott saw it the same way. Unfortunately, it killed what had been a good night up to that point.
“Obviously, I saw them crashing, and we were all just stacking up trying to get stopped and then after the wreck was over, I thought we were done wrecking. I was just trying to squeak by, and I guess Kyle just didn’t know I was to his left, and we were, so I hate that,” Elliott said. “We had a good start to the night, and it just slowly unraveled until it finally fell apart. So hopefully we get on a better stretch starting next week.
“… I think Kyle just didn’t know that we were trying to squeeze by the wreck on the bottom. He was kind of angled back towards the bottom of the racetrack, and I was just coming through. It’s just unfortunate.
Category: General Sports
