Tony Stewart won his seventh Nationwide Series race at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday afternoon, but that victory took a backseat to the bigger story of the race: more than a dozen fans were injured when a dramatic last-lap crash sent the front end of rookie Kyle Larson’s car into the grandstand area.
The wreck began when Regan Smith put a block on Brad Keselowski as the cars were coming to the checkered flag. As Smith’s Chevrolet Camaro came down across the nose of Keselowski’s Ford Mustang, mayhem followed; Larson’s Chevrolet got airborne and caught the frontstretch catchfence, sending his engine and front suspension through the fence and into the grandstand area. Larson’s car was sheared off at the firewall; Larson and all other drivers in the accident were cleared by the infield care center.
“I’m fine. Sprint cars wreck a lot harder,” said Larson on NASCAR.com. “Or, they feel they wreck a lot harder. But yeah, it was definitely a big hit. Hopefully, I don’t have another one like that in stock cars.”
Sam Hornish Jr., Alex Bowman, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Parker Kligerman followed Stewart through the wreckage to finish in the top five. Danica Patrick finished 36th after engine problems put her out of the race after 31 laps. Kyle Busch, who led 22 of the first 100 laps, also suffered engine woes; he finished 32nd.
Find more updates on this accident at www.nascar.com.
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