Rain forced the 2024 Daytona 500 to be delayed by a day, and it didn’t take more than six laps for Brad Keselowski to become the target of fury on NASCAR Twitter after triggering a crash.
Similar to the Truck Series’ Friday night opener, the NASCAR Cup Series race only lasted six laps after a multi-car crash halted Sunday afternoon’s rain-delayed Daytona 500.
At the beginning of these races, the field instantly switches to a fuel-saving mode, which eventually opens up a third lane. However, these cars are not exceptionally adept three-wide runners due to their excessive instability in the draft.
The crash happened on the outside entering the tri-oval after John Hunter Nemechek was forced to turn down into Harrison Burton and Carson Hocevar due to a shove from Brad Keselowski behind him. Burton skidded onto the infield and his car shot across the damp grass following days of rain.
Kaz Grala was struck by Burton as he slid back up the front stretch, eliminating all of the cars caught in the way out of the iconic Daytona 500 Race.
According to Burton, the third lane had to be put to use as the field was undoubtedly stacked up due to the fuel savings.
“I just felt the contact on the right side,” Burton said. “I don’t know. Frustrating. Once I got into the grass, I couldn’t slow down, it was so wet. Slid, and slid, and slid until I came back up.
“Bummer. I don’t even know what I could do different. I wasn’t even full-throttle yet. I’m just over of crashing early in these races.”
Hocevar claimed he had “basically only one second” to react and Like Burton, he claimed he was unable to stop skidding on the grass following two days of rain. Meanwhile Grala who is driving on a part-time schedule is unaware of what transpired.
“Two cars wrecked it looked like through the tri-oval grass and just rolled right back up into traffic and, unfortunately, there was nowhere that we could go,” Grala said.
“It’s pretty disappointing to end our day that early. It feels like we didn’t get a chance to race at all today.
“I’m disappointed that we’ll have to wait another year to go again in the Daytona 500 and that’s hoping I get an opportunity.
The three-wide immediately made him nervous: “Yeah, I mean for sure. As soon as you get three-wide you know that everybody is pushing, but I figured that these guys wouldn’t want to wreck this early. I don’t know. Maybe somebody did.”
