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It’s an unfortunate inevitability that whenever anyone straps into a vehicle of any kind, crashes are bound to happen. They happen when average motorists strap into their mini-vans or Corvettes going reasonable speeds on the interstates of America or even driving on a sliver of a backwoods country road, and it happens when some of the best drivers in the world hop into their modern day rocket ships race at speeds between 180 and 200 miles per hour. And at those speeds, wrecks and such tend to be especially gnarly.
Our social media gurus here at the Daily Downforce went to Twitter yesterday to beg the question: what’s the most wicked NASCAR wreck you’ve ever seen in person? For our team, it was the Chris Beuscher’s gnarly flip in the 2022 Coca-Cola 600. A number of fans sounded off. Let’s go through some of them.
A popular answer in the comments was the 2020 Daytona 500 wreck. It was a last-lap battle for not only a win but a win in the Great American Race. Ryan Newman in his No. 6 Ford got hooked and flipped, going driver-side first into the outside wall in the trioval. The car came to a rest upside down in the infield towards the end of pit road.
Luckily, this race had a much happier ending with not only Ryan Newman making a full recovery but also returning to the driver seat later that year. He would go on to end his full-time career with Roush the next year. In 2023, he made a return, feeling in for a driver who shall not be named for a handful of races. It’s wild to look back on it now but that is certainly one of the worst wrecks I’ve ever seen in NASCAR.
Ethan Kuckowski caught the whole thing on video.
And Andrew caught it on camera as well as the cleanup in the aftermath.
Chris Blackmore, a fire and rescue worker who was on the scene in Denny Hamlin’s pit got a souvenir. It’s forever a part of his mancave now.
Tyler Seguins said the most gnarly crash that he witness was from a truck race at Texas in 2017. Timothy Peters flipped. I admittedly don’t remember this one. Watching it back now, it happened when Austin Wayne Self got out of shape. He ran into the No. 99 of Peters which sent them both into the grassy infield. Peters’ splitter caught the grass and it sent his truck tumbling over. It’s a wild thing to see, for sure.
Andrew Gorton WTOC echoes that the most brutal crash he had ever seen in person was Newman’s. Yeah, that was a big one. In the photograph he tweeted below, you can see the mangled No. 6 getting hauled away on a rollback as Newman was rushed to the hospital.
Wow, yes, I remember this one as well. This was back when Kyle Larson was in the Xfinity Series. He was running for Turner-Scott Motorsports driving the No. 32. On the last lap, the big one happened just short of the start/finish line. Larson’s No. 32 was ejected into the catchfence. It tore his car and the fence apart and ripped the car’s entire engine block out. The worst part about this one was that there were fans who were hurt in the incident, some of them critically so. You hate to see that kind of thing happen as a sporting event that’s supposed to be fun.
Joshua was at Texas this year, catching the huge wreck between Dean Thompson who had already hit the wall and was coming to a rest and a handful of other trucks, one of them t-boning Thompson on the driver side door. The best thing to come out of this was seeing Thompson immediately climbing out of his truck under his own power.
This one will be mentioned a couple of times in this article. Who could forget the Pocono wreck that had Jeb Burton flipped upside down? That was a bad hit for sure. Hydan caught the whole thing on video right here, sitting just outside of turn number 3.
Joseph Wendt points out that that weekend in particular was a bad one for wrecks in NASCAR. Not only did the Jeb Burton incident happen but Kurt Busch was also involved in a crash during Cup Series practice. The wreck would hand the elder Busch a career-ending concussion. He has yet to return, despite the overwhelming desire to.
This one isn’t a NASCAR crash but it’s from a late model wreck at Delaware back in 2021. As you can see, the No. 20 hit hard head-first into a concrete wall. Apparently, he hit so hard that it buckled the rear of the car.
From AnNndrew, more pics of Burton’s crash. He also saw the other full-time Burton, Harrison, hit hard at Daytona.
This is a great photo of the Jeb Burton incident captured by Brandon Barber. The No. 27 came to rest right in front of him. Prior to that, he’s witnessed some other big ones at the Tricky Triangle including the Dale Jr./Steve Park crash in 2002.
Again, not a NASCAR specific wreck but this footage caught of a midget flipping over the outside barrier is a scary one, indeed. Thanks to Jaxon Carr for sending it in.
Here, Dylan Hoover tweets us footage of a street stock flipping over the outside wall at a short track somewhere. Truly gnarly! Glad everyone was okay.
Troy Lehnortt had no picture for us but states that the Steve Park crash at Pocono in 2002 was a scary one.
John Coliflower was at the race where, unfortunately, Kerry Earnhardt and Blaise Alexander got together in an ARCA Race. Alexander would not survive the crash. RIP, Blaise Alexander.
The biggest crash I’ve seen in person happened this year. It was during an Xfinity race at Darlington. They were coming to either the white or checkered flag. Larson hooked J. H. Nemechek and the No. 20 Toyota hit the inside wall hard right in front of me. That was pretty gnarly. Glad he was able to walk away.
What about you Daily Downforce readers? What are some more gnarly crashes you’ve witnessed in person? Comment and let us know! Meanwhile, keep it right here for all your NASCAR developing stories.
