Busch, Keselowski tangle in wreck that sparks multi-car melee
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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — It took all of 10 minutes into Friday’s opening Sprint Cup Series practice before the “big one” occurred at Daytona International Speedway.
Video replay showed contact between Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch triggered a 10-car accident that relegated eight drivers to backup cars for Sunday night’s Coke Zero 400, including three of the four Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas.
Busch, his JGR teammates Carl Edwards and Denny Hamlin, Chevrolet drivers Martin Truex Jr., Jamie McMurray and Ryan Newman and Ford drivers Trevor Bayne and Sam Hornish Jr. all had to switch to backup cars.
“Looks like the 2-car (Keselowski) got into my left rear and he got away unscathed and crashed everybody else’s stuff,” Busch said after looking at a video replay of the incident.
“It’s frustrating, it’s not at all what these guys pour all their blood, sweat and tears into preparing cars. We wreck in practice, that’s not very smart. The 2-car just spun us around. There’s room to lift but some people don’t.
“It sucks a guy that started it all got away unscathed.”
But, Busch conceded, “It’s his fault he caused it, but I’ve probably been in the same boat and caused one before. It’s just not that time to go (so early in practice).”
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Following the first of the day’s two 55-minute practices, Keselowski surveyed the bodywork on his No. 2 Ford and wondered aloud if he actually made contact with Busch. He conceded it doesn’t take much, however.
“First off, it stinks seeing cars get torn up,” Keselowski said. “I had a run on Kyle. … and Greg Biffle right on my butt so I wanted to go back down low. I went to go down low and Kyle started to come down. I had Greg there and I ran into the back of Kyle.
“Just flat out ran into the back of him. All the timing was off. I’m not sure if I even hit him that hard and looking at the front of my car, not sure if I hit him at all. I’m sure it looked that way, though.
“It’s just a bummer to see cars get torn up. … it stinks. It’s one of those deals here at Daytona. You race so close. This July race it doesn’t race like the February race and when you bump in the corners that’s what happens.”
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Newman, who was helplessly caught up in the melee, spoke to Busch in the garage, curious as to what actually happened. The veteran could only shake his head as he watched his crew roll his backup No. 31 Caterpillar Chevy off the truck.
“Not sure what happened, but it doesn’t surprise me at all,” the 2008 Daytona 500 winner Newman said. “We were in a different mode of going out there and practicing and learning a little bit. It doesn’t change to much for us, we’ll have the backup out there for the second session and we were going to do some single car runs anyway.
“It’s nothing spectacular other than we have a torn-up race car that didn’t need to be.”
Two-time Daytona 500 winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. was fastest in opening practice with a best lap of 202.285 mph in the No. 88 Nationwide Stars and Stripes Chevy. Austin Dillon, Clint Bowyer, Paul Menard and Bayne rounded out the top five.
Another Daytona 500 winner, Jamie McMurray was as much philosophic as frustrated as he waited for the team to get his backup No. 1 McDonald’s Chevrolet ready to drive.
“I think it’s way harder for the team than it is the driver,” McMurray said of Friday’s circumstances. “The year (2010) we won the (Daytona) 500 we were on our third car.
“I’m not really frustrated, it’s part of plate racing and hopefully it just happened today and doesn’t during the race.”