Daytona calamity reared its head late in Stage 1 Saturday night as a multicar incident broke out entering the tri-oval on Lap 27.
Joey Logano, Bubba Wallace and Kyle Busch collided together racing three-wide tight down the frontstretch after a push from the No. 5 Chevrolet of Kyle Larson knocked Wallace’s No. 23 Toyota to the left, turning him into the No. 22 Ford and No. 8 Chevrolet.
Twelve cars were involved in the wreck, most notably Alex Bowman, who entered the regular-season finale as the last driver in the playoffs at 60 points above the elimination line entering the race. Denny Hamlin, Austin Cindric, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Noah Gragson were also among those involved.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos
Bowman and Tyler Reddick entered the 160-lap event as the two drivers above the elimination line without a victory. Reddick was caught up in a two-car tango off Turn 4 at Lap 18 with Todd Gilliland that caused front-end damage to the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota.
Bowman started in the second spot, but lost significant momentum early on in the low groove and had faded to 30th place by Lap 6. He had worked the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet back up to 10th at the time of the incident.
“I mean, honestly, I don’t think any of us expected the bottom lane to fall apart like it did in the beginning of the race and us to lose all our track position. That was pretty surprising,” Bowman said. “Just couldn’t get going, and we chipped away at getting our track position back and got up — I don’t know where we were, 10th or backside of the top 10, somewhere around there — right when we crashed. When they crashed in front of us, there wasn’t anything we could have done different to get through that all.
“I mean, I hate it for everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. They work really hard. The last 10 or 11 weeks has been really fun to be a part of. We’ve been really strong, and that’s been cool.”
Reddick continued in the race on the lead lap, but Bowman’s night came to an end shortly after his No. 48 crew assessed the damage in the Cup Series garage.
Wallace, who led a lap early and clinched a playoff spot last month at Indianapolis, was among those sidelined by the crash damage with 133 laps still to go.
“Got up to the lead fairly quick, so I thought we were playing all of our cards right,” Wallace said. “But just in the blink of an eye, which is what happens here at Daytona, it can be all taken away from you. It is what it is. We’ll re-rack, take Sunday off and go focus on Darlington.”
The crash forced an eight-minute, 30-second red flag for clean-up.
With Ryan Blaney winning the regular-season finale, it solidifies the 16-driver Cup Series Playoff field, which includes Reddick, who took the checkered flag in 21st place, and Bowman, who was credited with a 36th-place finish.