NASCAR’s All-Star Race was slowed by another sizable stack-up early on, bringing the first segment to a close at Dover Motor Speedway.
With the field racing with varying degrees of tire wear in a dash to the segment end, Riley Herbst’s fading No. 35 Toyota was tagged by Alex Bowman’s No. 48 Chevrolet, setting off a chain-reaction melee involving nine cars on the front straightaway.
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Among those also caught up in the wake were Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch, Christopher Bell, Zane Smith, John Hunter Nemechek, Erik Jones, Chris Buescher and AJ Allmendinger. Smith’s No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford team was the winner of the Pit Crew Challenge in Saturday’s qualifying session.
“Certainly different tire strategies, I think, had people doing some different stuff there to close out the stage, and then obviously trying to figure out where you’re going to reset and all those things,” said Elliott, who was out of the race after his Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 crew determined his damage was terminal. “So yeah, just a little strategy being played and unfortunately, I got caught up in the mess.”
Nemechek’s crash-damaged No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Toyota finished 26th in the first segment, leaving him in position to start the second 75-lap segment in first place. His car, however, was too far gone and he did not return to the race.
“The 35 (Herbst) about lost it two or three times that last run, and I don’t know if he got help, but he finally lost it on the front straightaway, and I think I got tagged in the left-rear,” Nemechek said. “Everyone was just trying to check up not to hit him, and got spun and hit the inside wall getting into Turn 1 and ruined the race, but overall, really solid day for us. We had a really good shot there. I felt like we were able to make hay there on that for sure on that restart there, and yeah, it sucks. We should be starting on the pole here for the second segment, even being wrecked, so sad day, tough day, but we’ll move on from it and go to Charlotte. Sucks that we weren’t racing for a million dollars.”
MORE: Replays of the wreck
The opening 75-lap portion of the non-points race was marked by another nine-car wreck on Lap 2. Bubba Wallace was in front at the end of the first segment.
Of those involved, only Jones, Busch, Bell and Allmendinger were either able or eligible to compete in the final 200-lap segment. Jones fared best with a solid rally to a third-place finish overall. Allmendinger was 12th. Busch was penalized twice, once for speeding on pit road and again for a pit-road commitment line violation, and finished 17th. Bell parked his ill-handling car 36 laps short of the full 200-lap segment distance and took 23rd place.
“Yeah, we kind of knew that we were good on the long run with our AdventHealth Camry,” Jones said. “We had some good track position to start that run, and we just kind of needed to keep the distance with the 11 (Denny Hamlin) and 19 (Chase Briscoe) and 45 (Tyler Reddick). Then he had an issue, and once I got behind the 11 and 19, I just couldn’t keep pace. They were really hooked up. We started going a bit free and lost some ground but just needed a longer run. We were super strong past 70 on. The one run before the last one, we had the pace to run those guys down and challenge them. Just lacking a little speed. The balance was close, just needed a little more pace in the car, but this is a big gain. We’ve been pretty bad at Dover the last handful of years, so I know it is a little bit of a unique deal, but a great run.”
Points-paying action returns for the Cup Series on Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the crown jewel Coca-Cola 600 (6 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).