With under 100 to go in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix Raceway, Joey Logano and Ross Chastain made contact on a Lap 217 restart that initiated a multicar wreck just past the dogleg after the start/finish line.
The No. 22 Team Penske Ford gave the No. 1 Trackhouse Chevrolet a shot in the rear in the dogleg transition, causing Chastain to get loose and spin to the right. Chastain came up the track and collected Anthony Alfredo, Bubba Wallace and Austin Cindric, who took a hard hit into the outside retaining wall. Cindric did climb out of his No. 2 Team Penske Ford under his own power following the incident and was checked and released from the infield care center.
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“The restarts get crazy here, and I’m not really sure what happened other than just cars jumping right across the race track,” Cindric said. “I’m not sure I’ve ever jumped head-on into a wall, but that changed today. It’s just a shame. I’m not discouraged. This 2 team has shown me a lot in the first four races, but it’s just a shame we don’t have the results for them. We got points in both stages and were in desperate need of a race finish without a crash, and we did not get that today. It’s a shame because I felt like we did all the right things throughout the afternoon, so that’s racing.”
Alfredo, who filled in the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet due to Alex Bowman dealing with vertigo, also exited the race.
Wallace and Logano remained on track and on the lead lap. Logano was involved in an additional wreck on Lap 254, resulting in significant damage to the No. 22.
Wallace was able to leave Phoenix with a sixth-place result despite some left-side damage. Chastain returned to the track 26 laps down and was credited with a 28th-place finish.