Although the 65th running of the Daytona 500 initially waved green through the waning portions of Stage 2, the first major caution of the race collected a number of potential race-winning contenders.
With 12 laps to go in Stage 2 and 82 laps to go in the race, Tyler Reddick got loose in the outside lane following a bump from Kevin Harvick and eventually orbited down into the bottom groove, causing a domino effect. Drivers involved in the ensuing incident included Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Erik Jones and Daniel Suárez, with Reddick, Jones and Elliott all officially out of the race following the damage.
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“Yeah, it was hard to tell,” Jones said to NASCAR.com following the crash. “It looked like the 45 got turned around, but I couldn’t see how it happened or how it had happened, but regardless, we spun off there on the bottom trying to get around and then got hit, left side hard enough to take out the left rear and just kind of end our day.
“So, it is what it is. We went out, we were racing, we were doing all we could and, you know, we were just in the wrong spot at the wrong time. Wish we could’ve been a little ahead of him.”
Additional drivers to be involved in the incident included Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson and Harvick.
This story will be updated.