Four cars were caught up in a wreck on Turn 5 of Lap 52 in the Cheez-It 355 at The Glen on Sunday, which brought out the red flag at Watkins Glen International.
The No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. spun and careened across the track to start the incident.
Stenhouse’s car impacted with the interior wall, and then made contact with the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet of Jimmie Johnson, the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet of Austin Dillon and the No. 16 Roush Fenway Racing Ford of Greg Biffle.
The Nos. 16, 17 and 48 did not return to the track.
“We were just hustling hard on that restart and got loose over the curb and just kind of spun,” Stenhouse Jr. said. “From that point we were just along for the ride. It looked like everybody scattered and it was probably pretty hard to see. We got hit pretty hard.”
Johnson was the one who did the hitting, but he didn’t have much of a choice.
“The cars started checking up in front of me and they all moved out of the way and the No. 17 was sitting there, stopped,” Johnson said. “I remember seeing a door number and I was so thankful it was the passenger-side door and not the driver-side door because I plowed him. I really hit the car hard. I was afraid that I might have injured him. But, thankfully he’s OK and everybody is all right.”