The red flag came out on Lap 70 of Saturday night’s NASCAR Cup Series In-Season Challenge opener at EchoPark Speedway (formerly known as Atlanta Motor Speedway) after a huge multicar wreck involved nearly half of the 40-car field.
The wreck ignited when Denny Hamlin got spun in the middle of the pack on the backstretch early in Stage 2 as chaos ensued. Multiple drivers were involved, including Stage 1 winner Austin Cindric, causing another huge shake-up of In-Season Challenge brackets.
“I had a small chance to get through a gap there, but obviously it didn’t work out,” Cindric said. “It’s a shame. Obviously, we had a super fast Quaker State/Menards Ford Mustang. We wanted to keep the thing out front.
“I was looking forward to it because we got back in traffic with staying out to win the stage, but I was looking forward to see what our car was gonna do in dirty air and see what final adjustments we needed to make and have that opportunity to learn there. It’s just a shame and a shame for everybody at Team Penske bringing such fast cars and all of them wreck out.”
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Polesitter Joey Logano was also among those taken out of the race in this wreck. Before getting caught up in the melee, the driver of the No. 22 Ford led 51 laps in the Peach State.
“Just the wrong place at the wrong time,” Logano said. “It’s a real bummer. The Autotrader Mustang wasn’t too bad. It had speed. We were gonna have to work on handling, no doubt, but it hurts to see so many of our cars – all four of our cars that were lights out – none of them are even running anymore.”
Other drivers involved included: William Byron, Chase Briscoe, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Preece and Daniel Suárez.
Before this wreck occurred, Christopher Bell and Ryan Blaney were taken out of contention late in Stage 1 when Bell was spun after contact with Kyle Larson, as Ryan Blaney got clipped in the right rear and was sent hard into the outside wall in Turn 4 after getting clipped by the spinning Austin Dillon.