'Hellacious' move causes 18-car NASCAR crash

The closing laps of the Daytona 500 were marred by an enormous wreck, taking out 18 cars.

With nine laps to go in the NASCAR Cup Series season-opener, William Byron was being pushed by his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman.

All of a sudden, Byron got loose and slid down the road, making contact with the right rear of Brad Keselowski to send the RKF Racing Ford Mustang into a spin.

Keselowski centre-punched the side of fellow Ford driver Joey Logano, who took Ryan Blaney with him as he spun.

The ensuing chaos saw Todd Gilliland spin and take out Daniel Suarez, effectively blocking the track and causing a trail of destruction as the pack piled in.

Alongside the aforementioned names, the other drivers in the wreck included Kyle Larson, Noah Gragson, Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe, Martin Truex Jr., Chris Buescher, Ryan Preece, Erik Jones, Tyler Reddick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ty Gibbs, and Anthony Alfredo.

“You knew it was coming,” said Fox Sports commentator and 2007 Daytona 500 winner Kevin Harvick.

All drivers have been evaluated and released from the infield care center.

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) February 20, 2024

“It’s a parking lot down there, cars parked everywhere.

“It just always gets to this point as you get to the end of the race. The pushes get harder and everyone throws caution to the wind to say to heck with it.

“When they get to blocking and moving out of line, those bump drafts just become misaligned.

“All that energy going forward, they can’t stop it and they wind end up running into each other misaligned and they wreck, just like they did there.”

The race was subsequently red-flagged and was stopped to clean up the mess.

Logano, who had led the most laps of any driver with 45 to his name, was left bemused by the incident.

He pinned the blame on race leader Ross Chastain, who had been blocking moments before the crash.

“I’m pissed off, that’s my emotions,” Logano chuckled.

“I was riding up against the top there and I just know Brad (Keselowski) got turned up into me.

“(Ross Chastain) was throwing hellacious blocks most the time, I know that.

“I didn’t see what started it there. Just a bummer. It’s speedway racing until it sucks and I’m on this end of it today.”

William Byron wins the Daytona 500! #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/bmofJSB6k3

— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) February 20, 2024

After a lengthy delay, the race restarted with four laps to go with Chastain in the lead.

Despite making contact with Keselowski’s car, Byron escaped the carnage with just a scratch to the left front of his Chevrolet Camaro. He lined up second for the restart.

In a frenetic finish, Chastain tried to shoot through a gap coming to the white flag. Evidently, the gap wasn’t big enough and he made contact with Blaney and the pair spun.

At the same time, Byron took the lead and the white flag. The yellow was duly drawn and the leaderboard frozen. The Hendrick Motorsport driver came around the next lap to take the chequered flag and with it the win.