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May 10, 2018

One year after Kansas wreckage, new roles emerge


On May 13, 2017, a terrifying crash deep into a seasonable Sunflower State night for NASCAR left three cars in a mangled mess and one driver airlifted to a nearby hospital.

The race — the Go Bowling 400 — continued that Saturday evening at Kansas Speedway without the three drivers: Joey Logano, Danica Patrick and the injured Aric Almirola. But for two of them, including one out-of-the-fray observer in Darrell Wallace Jr., the crash was part of a shape-shifting churn that would alter the arc of their racing careers.

RELATED: Full schedule for Kansas

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series returns to Kansas Saturday (8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), a race scheduled almost a year to the day after the 2017 melee, one of last season’s most severe incidents. A broken brake rotor caused Logano to lose control of his No. 22 Ford, which hooked Patrick’s No. 10 and sent both careening into the outside retaining wall.

With fluid littering the 1.5-mile track at the end of the high-speed frontstretch, Almirola’s No. 43 piled into the multicar tangle with an impact forceful enough to lift the rear tires off the asphalt. Almirola suffered a compression fracture to his T5 vertebra, sidelining him for an eight-race stretch that included the non-points All-Star weekend.

One year later, the situation for three drivers with ties to the wreck have emerged in far different career paths. A breakdown of who landed where (in order of how the dominos fell) and the upshot from one of 2017’s biggest turning points.

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DANICA PATRICK

Danica Patrick waves to the crowd at Daytona International Speedway.
Jonathan Ferrey | Getty Images

Position then: Driver, Stewart-Haas Racing No. 10 Ford

Position now: Inching toward retirement from motorsports, with only the Indianapolis 500 for Ed Carpenter Racing left on her racing schedule.

How it happened: Patrick had reached a career crossroads by 2017, her fifth full season in NASCAR’s top series, and questions about her future in the sport followed her week to week. Patrick announced in September that she would part ways with SHR at season’s end, and she dropped the news in an emotional press conference before the November finale in Miami that she would hang up her helmet after one last try at two crown-jewel races — the Daytona 500 and Indy 500.

Quotable: “I am just frustrated for the lack of breaks I get. It seems like every time things are going better and something happens I get crashed or am in a crash.” — Patrick, May 13, 2017

The upshot: The Kansas race marked one of 10 crash-related exits for Patrick during the 2017 season, and her one-off entry into this year’s Daytona ended with the same outcome. Her uneven performance was balanced by her seemingly boundless marketing appeal, which has secured her a multifaceted post-driving career as a businesswoman with her hand in the fitness, health, apparel and winemaking industries. Though her departure from stock-car racing was a tearful one, Patrick was able to dictate the terms of her farewell, a privilege that isn’t afforded to every driver.

ARIC ALMIROLA

Aric Almirola, in his first year driving Stewart-Haas Racing's No. 10 Ford.
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images

Position then: Driver, Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 Ford

Position now: Driver, Stewart-Haas Racing No. 10 Ford

How it happened: The reveal of Patrick’s break with SHR included acknowledgement that the shift was “due to a new sponsorship arrangement in 2018.” That sponsor was Smithfield Foods, which had announced just hours earlier that it would end its six-year run with Richard Petty Motorsports to join Stewart-Haas. That information meshed with the same-day news that Almirola wouldn’t return to RPM in 2018. Almirola and Smithfield — linked since 2012 — eventually made the jump together, but the official introduction of Almirola as the No. 10’s newest driver came two months after Patrick’s bombshell.

Quotable: “I think that was really big for (Smithfield) to want to stay in the sport and want to stay connected to the fan. Fortunately, they loved me enough and thought that I was a good enough brand ambassador to want me to come drive their race car at Stewart-Haas Racing, and I feel like over the last several years they’ve been happy with all the results from Monday to Saturday in the grocery store, they just wanted more results on Sunday on the race track, and I think that’s really what it’s all about.” — Almirola, Feb. 14, 2018

The upshot: Almirola has ridden the wave of Stewart-Haas Racing’s out-of-the-gate success at the start of the 2018 season. Though he hasn’t reached the wave’s crest like teammates Kevin Harvick (four wins) or Clint Bowyer (one win), his gains have been steady. Almirola already has four top-10 finishes this season, just two shy of his total in last year’s injury-shortened 29-race campaign. The change of scenery also extends to his 11th-place rank in the Monster Energy Series standings; his best result in the season-long points with RPM was 16th place in his lone postseason appearance in 2014.

DARRELL WALLACE JR.

Bubba Wallace shares a smile at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Jerry Markland | Getty Images

Position then: Driver, Roush Fenway Racing No. 6 Ford in NASCAR Xfinity Series.

Position now: Driver, Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 Chevrolet in Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

How it happened: Super-sub Regan Smith was called upon as an immediate fill-in for the injured Almirola, but barely three weeks after the Kansas wreck, Roush Fenway shuttered the Xfinity No. 6 and simultaneously announced that Wallace would make the transition to a substitute role in RPM’s No. 43. Wallace held his own in the four-race audition for the Petty team, which tapped him in October for a full-time ride in 2018.

Kansas quotable: “Things changed from this day last year. My season was kind of questionable around this time and then, obviously Aric had his wreck to where opportunities opened up. It’s crazy how things work out. Sometimes it’s fortunately and sometimes unfortunately, but looking back on it, this time period coming up surrounding this race and the following races after that was a couple weeks I’ll never forget.” — Wallace, May 8, 2018

The upshot: Almost a third of the way into his rookie campaign, Wallace savored an emotion-filled runner-up result in the Daytona 500 and has shown glimmers of promise in a handful of other races. Besides those peeks at performance, RPM has found an X-factor with a young, engaging personality who has enticed fans and sponsors alike with his interactions and command of social media. Plus, King Richard himself has given Wallace a stamp of approval. Their partnership is already a win-win scenario that only promises to get better when the team builds speed.

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