Wild 45 minutes wipes out four trucks in draft test

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Rookies and veterans appeared equally culpable -- and equally ready to point fingers -- after two accidents in the last 45 minutes of Friday's opening Craftsman Truck Series Preseason Thunder test session at Daytona International Speedway sent at least two teams home and damaged no less than six trucks.

At about 4:19 p.m. ET, the session was halted when the Roush Fenway Racing Fords of rookie Colin Braun and sophomore teammate Joey Clanton crashed exiting the tri-oval while involved in a draft with five-to-six trucks, including the No. 51 Billy Ballew Motorsports Toyota of Kyle Busch.

Kyle Busch's No. 51 team poking fun at Roush Fenway's Joey Clanton.

It was a tragedy for Roush Fenway, as each of its three teams had only one superspeedway truck at the test, which was attended by 32 teams; but those three were atop the morning, single-truck speed chart with third-year driver Erik Darnell the best with a lap of 50.727 seconds (177.420 mph).

Braun's No. 6 Ford was second at 50.908 seconds (176.790) and Clanton's No. 09 third with a lap of 50.989 seconds (176.509), tied with Andy Lally's No. 7 TRG Chevrolet.

Both Ford drivers, who drove their vehicles back to the garage before packing them up, pointed the finger at Busch, who was in a truck at Daytona for the first time testing for Ballew.

But Busch gave a precise explanation of how aerodynamics was the culprit.

"There were about five or six of us, and we were pretty spread out," Busch said. "There were three of them that went by me, and I pulled in line, with two of them coming up behind me in Turns 1 and 2. We made it all the way around to the tri-oval.

"[Braun] was leading it, and [Clanton] was going to pass him on the outside and was doing a side-draft on him, and he got within the 'vee,' the venturi basically of the air that comes off the front of the nose and it looked like it pulled [Clanton] in, further, to [Braun], and when they touched, they both steered up towards the wall."

Busch, whose crew within minutes of his returning to the garage had placed a large yellow "X" in duct tape on his unmarked right rear quarter panel with "Stay Off Clanton" written on it in Sharpie, explained side drafting and how it can catch rookies unaware.

"Clanton was blaming it on me, [saying] that I hit [Braun]," Busch said, "when I was behind Clanton watching this whole deal happen. I saw what happened and I wasn't even close to hitting anybody.

"[Braun], I don't think he was sure exactly what happened -- he just said he felt like he got lifted up -- but what happens is, and he's not used to these things yet, but when somebody gets on the right rear quarter panel like that -- we've seen it happen everywhere we go, we all spin out, the inside trucks do when somebody's going faster on the outside.

"Clanton got on the outside, which got [Braun] a little loose, which made [Braun] feel like he got lifted up from behind. It was just him getting loose."

When both Roush Fenway trucks returned to the garage, Clanton initially went to Braun and appeared to angrily speak to him while waving his hands in the air. Both men eyed their trucks while debriefing with numerous crewmen.

After several minutes the teammates had a calmer exchange and when they spoke to the media, they were united.

"It's Friday, the first day of practice and you don't bump draft, especially a rookie that's never done it before," Clanton said. "[Busch] got into Colin and got him upset through the tri-oval and that ain't the place to do it -- he shoved him up the racetrack and we got together."

Braun agreed he wasn't sure what happened when asked if Busch's 51 truck had hit him.

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"That's sure what it felt like to me -- I don't know," Braun said. "But it sure felt like somebody got in the back of me and that truck just took off like crazy. I felt bad it was Joey up there -- it's too bad it was my teammate, but it took off like the rear-end was up in the air or something. It was crazy.

"Right up until then everything was going great, right to plan. We were working away at the things we wanted to get done and I was getting a lot of experience drafting. It's unfortunate it had to end short like that."

Within minutes of the session restarting, it was halted when Brendan Gaughan's No. 10 Circle Bar Racing Ford ran into the back of David Starr's No. 11 Red Horse Racing Toyota on the backstretch in the midst of an eight-or-nine-truck draft, which triggered a four-truck melee.

When the dust settled, Gaughan ran to find Starr, the only driver involved who visited the infield care center, to offer an apology for starting the crash.

"It was my fault," Gaughan said to Starr. "I went to push you and those Fords have ramps on the front of them, and I don't know. I went to push you and you just got sideways."

The apology was small consolation for Starr, who last year drove the truck Gaughan's in this season. After both men struggled in single truck runs, Gaughan was fastest in the afternoon drafting session at 48.744 seconds (184.638 mph) while Starr was fourth at 48.809 seconds (184.392).

"Just one of them deals, but I wish it wouldn't have happened," Starr said. "My truck was leading and it was handling good -- it was pretty awesome. I had gone to the back of the pack and all the way to the front, come off Turn 2 and was just running down the back straightaway when all of a sudden the back of the truck just lifted up and it turned right.

"These trucks draft pretty good and you get such a big run, it just -- I don't know, you just can't touch nobody. I'm disappointed, because we're only one day into a three-day test, that truck was awesome and now it's destroyed. I'm just disappointed for my team."

Former Truck Series champion Ted Musgrave's No. 59 HT Motorsports Toyota was a victim of that crash, which also caused some damage to the nose of Compton's No. 18 Dodge.

Musgrave, who spoke with the media then pitched in to try to help repair his team's only truck, said he was unsettled by some of the driving he witnessed during the afternoon.

"Here you are, an innocent bystander and you just get hit by somebody -- it don't look good [because] there's a lot of trucks out of control out there, right now," Musgrave said. "It's just a little inexperience -- people don't know they're out of control when they are. It's unfortunate, because our truck was good, we knew how to get the thing handling and that's all we were worried about."

Busch ended up seventh on the drafting chart, after he was only 31st in single-truck runs.

"We weren't that good in single-[truck] runs," Busch said. "But we worked on it a little bit and kept getting it a little bit better, trying to find the right attitude pitch it wants to be at, with front springs and all that, and we'll get it a little better tomorrow.

"We're going to be a race contender, not a qualifier."

For Braun and Clanton, the realization their Daytona test was finished after a day was a tough pill to swallow.

"We're out here just seeing what the trucks will do -- see how they are," Clanton said. "It's the first day with two more to go. We're down to the last 30 minutes of practice and all we were doing was just seeing if it would go up front and go back to the back and then come in -- and that [wreck] happens.

"[We had] two fast trucks -- now we've got to go back to the shop, cut 'em apart and go back at it again and get ready for Daytona when it comes back around in February."