The 2nd Duel at Daytona was marred by a huge crash. Ryan Blaney was hooked into the wall setting off a 12-car accident where 5 cars, including Blaney, were forced to pull out backup cars for Sunday’s Daytona 500. Ryan Blaney was hot under the collar, saying that an “Awful push” caused the accident, but, what actually happened?
Below is a video that shows the full crash as Blaney vents his frustration to Fox. This offers the best view of what led up to the accident.
Looking at the crash moment by moment, the chain reaction started off of turn four, when Blaney tried to make a move to the outside and Byron blocked the move. Blaney moves back to the inside underneath Byron, and Byron backs up thanks to no drafting partner.
While this is all happening, Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski are coming up behind Byron with a huge head of steam. Keselowski is pushing Busch, and Byron is all by himself with no drafting partner.
Busch then bumps Byron a little bit too hard in the wrong spot, which sends Byron to the inside. Byron right hooks Blaney and it’s on from there.
So, who’s fault is this? Kyle Busch is the one who blocked Byron, with Byron turning into Blaney. But, what could Busch have done differently? Busch was being pushed by Keselowski, so, it’s not fair to put all of the blame on Busch.
Byron was the one who made the block on Blaney. Was it aggressive? Sure, but, it’s the final 15 laps of the race. Byron was trying to protect his position at all costs because if he got caught with a driver on his outside, the train of cars would follow and he would be stuck in his spot.
Now on to Keselowski. Keselowski was pushing Busch as the Blaney/Byron blocking was happening. The pushing continued as Byron ended up in front of Busch, and the sheer momentum that Busch had with little control over his car was what pushed Byron around.
Was Keselowski’s move aggressive? Sure, it was aggressive, and he could have backed off of Busch with Byron in front of them both to prevent the accident.
In fairness, it was late in the race, and Keselowski was trying to push his lane as far forward as he could to get to the front. He also was stuck behind a car, so, could he see what was going on in front of him?
Ultimately, most of the blame can probably be placed on Brad Keselowski for a bad push. Byron did make an aggressive block, which blocked the fast-moving cars behind him. That may have been a bit ill-advised, but, it’s tough to pin the blame squarely on him. Ultimately, it’s racing, and this can also be chalked up to multiple drivers going for the same space at the same time.
Kyle Busch
While Blaney put the blame squarely on a “bad push”, different drivers had different perspectives of the wreck. Kyle Busch, for example, defended Keselowski somewhat, saying the driver of the No. 6 car could not see what was going on in front of them. This caused Busch to hit Byron in the tri-oval, which Busch said they’re not “supposed to do”.
Brad Keselowski
Keselowski offered a different perspective. He claims that he got off of the rear bumper of Busch right before Busch hit Byron. It’s tough to tell from the camera angle if that did happen, but, Keselowski and Busch did end up separated pretty quickly after Byron spun out. In that sense, it seemed that Keselowski tried to give Busch whatever control he could so that Byron would not crash.
William Byron
William Byron was not upset at all after the wreck. He mentioned how he had been pushed through the tri-oval throughout the night, but in this instance, Byron was so much slower that it caused the accident. He simply called it, “One of those deals”.
Everyone had a different perspective on the wreck. Byron seems to think it was a racing incident, Blaney puts it squarely on a bad push, Busch was not sure if Keselowski could see, and Keselowski said that he tried to adjust for the #24.
Ultimately, it seems that this was a classic example of multiple drivers arguing over the same real estate at the same time. Could Keselowski have been less aggressive with his push? Maybe, but, he claims that he tried to get off of Busch’s rear bumper. Was Byron’s block aggressive? Yes, it was, but he was trying to both keep Blaney from passing him and get into the fast lane.
There were a lot of moving pieces in this, and if one was a bit different, the incident would not happen. Most of the drivers involved seem to think this was a racing incident to some extent.
However, if blame has to be pinned somewhere, the aggressive push by Keselowski may be it. Then again, the Byron/Blaney block happened so fast that maybe pulling off of Busch would not have changed the momentum that much.
It’s a tough call, and there are multiple different perspectives on the crash. Who was at fault?
Following last week’s shocking lawsuit filed by Joe Gibbs Racing against their former Crew Chief and Competition Director Chris Gabehart, team owner and NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr chimed in with his take on how the lawsuit will unfold.
Entering the 2026 NASCAR season, most fans felt that a messy season, which saw multiple lawsuits filed between teams and one including NASCAR itself, was in the review mirror.
This illusion lasted not even one week after the 2026 season opening Daytona 500, with Joe Gibbs Racing filing a lawsuit against their former Crew Chief and Competition Director, Chris Gabehart, claiming he stole sensitive information from the team before jumping to Spire Motorsports.
Though the two have yet to come to blows over the matter in court, this battle is quickly picking up steam, with JGR since adding Spire as a co-defendant, and Gabehart filing a fiery and accusatory response on Wednesday afternoon.
Prior to these new additions, NASCAR Hall of Famer and co-owner of JR Motorsports, Dale Earnhardt Jr., shared his thoughts on the lawsuit, alongside a prediction on how it will end, during the latest episode of his podcast, The Dale Jr Download.
What’s Happening? Joe Gibbs Racing has filed a lawsuit against former competition director Chris Gabehart, alleging he took confidential team information…
During this episode, Earnhardt provided some valuable commentary on the issue, though this did not come from his perspective as a driver. Rather, it came from his insights as an active owner in one of NASCAR’s highest divisions.
The long-time co-owner of JR Motorsports said that situations like this are the reason why teams make employees sign a non-compete clause, which would prevent them from working in a similar capacity in the sport for a period of time.
“The reason why they get them to do that is that they do not want to race against that information the very next week. Or the very next year,” Earnhardt said. “And so, while that person does sign the non-compete, they do have all that information.”
Ultimately, Earnhardt sees two sides to the conflict, saying that Gabehart did something that “has been going on forever” by taking his knowledge and skills to a new team after a rocky end to his time as JGR’s Competition Director.
In fact, as Earnhardt pointed out, losing a veteran, championship-caliber Crew Chief to the competition is something JRM went through just this past off-season, when former Xfinity Series Champion Jim Pohlman left the team for Richard Childress Racing.
While Pohlman is competing in the Cup Series for RCR, Earnhardt acknowledged that he is sure JRM is racing against some of the knowledge that the champion Crew Chief took with him, be that literally or metaphorically, on Saturdays, as RCR has a NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series program.
“RCR hired Jim Pohlman. You don’t think I’m racing against some of this **** that Jim did here in the O’Reilly Series? We know that. We expect that.” — Dale Earnhardt Jr
But, in contrast, Earnhardt acknowledges that JGR isn’t trying to prevent Gabehart from working, but rather, to protect the millions of dollars they have poured into R&D.
The long-time short track racer also added that this is just part of racing in the highest form of stock car racing, saying that compared to local racing, or even the Truck Series, you probably wouldn’t see a lawsuit like this, but “when it’s $150 to $200 million a year,” the stakes are high.
Nonetheless, Earnhardt admits he is curious to see what is to come of the lawsuit, given the shocking claims that Gabehart was using company equipment to offload this information from JGR.
Unfortunately, in his eyes, those on the outside looking in at this lawsuit will probably never truly know what happened, as the NASCAR veteran thinks that Spire will try to settle.
“I think this settles. I bet [the] money guy at Spire says, ‘You know what? Let’s make this go away, let’s move on,’ and I think that we’ll never really truly know,” Earnhardt said.
What’s Happening? Former Joe Gibbs Racing Crew Chief and Competition Director Chris Gabehart has filed a new response slamming JGR as…
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While he may not have the accolades of some of the top names in NASCAR, collectors in the NASCAR community are starting to take notice of some outrageous resale prices for Carson Hocevar merchandise. So what exactly is going on here?
Of every subgroup within the NASCAR community, be that gamers, car fanatics, or just motorsports fans, there is perhaps no group more passionate than NASCAR collectors.
Whether it’s cards, sheet metal, merch, or diecast, NASCAR collectors have built a sprawling community of their own across the online NASCAR world to discuss everything you can imagine, from diecast production rumors to what collectables are fetching the highest prices.
A major topic of discussion in the NASCAR collector community this week, specifically in a now-deleted post to the r/NASCAR subreddit, was some sky-high prices for memorabilia of one of the NASCAR Cup Series’ most talked-about drivers, Carson Hocevar.
It’s no surprise that fans are clamoring for more Hocevar collectables. After all, he might have one of the most well-received personalities and racing styles in sports’ recent history, with many fans taking to his unapologetic racing and outgoing personality.
Of course, he has his detractors, as, at the same time, some of his fellow drivers have warned of some form of karma catching up to the former Rookie of the Year down the road.
But, if there were ever any doubt as to whether or not “Hurricane” Hocevar was shooting up the popularity charts in the grandstands, look no further than some of his merchandise being sold on sites like eBay.
For example, a Chili’s snapback hat that is similar to one that retailed for $50 on Spire Motorsports’ website before quickly selling out was recently resold on eBay for $122.50.
Now, a 145% increase is a lot for an unsigned, or non-race used hat (that also features no reference to Hocevar, Spire, or even the No. 77 team) might seem like an outlier, but what about a 1:64 scale diecast?
Well, prices are shooting up in that department as well, as an eBay auction for a 1:64 scale diecast of his 2025 Chili’s Ride the ‘Dente Chevrolet, which Lionel retailed for $11.75, sold for $41.00 just this morning.
If you think that’s a high price to buy a 1:64 at, what about 1:24 scale diecast? Well, this time you might want to sit down, because, on Wednesday afternoon, a 1:24 scale diecast of Hocevar’s Zeigler paint scheme from his 2024 Rookie of the Year season sold for $449.99.
Now it’s fun to window shop these wild prices, but they may leave you asking why they’re selling for that much.
Now, there are a lot of reasons why NASCAR merchandise will spike in value, and looking at the forces that are behind Hocevar, there is little to suggest that these high prices are going down anytime soon.
First, given his recent performance, some fans could see buying now as an investment, hoping that these items could pull a pretty penny down the line should Hocevar develop into a title contender.
This is similar to how a driver like Kyle Larson has seen their early merchandise (such as diecast from his days at Chip Ganassi Racing) skyrocket in value as his success and popularity have grown in and even outside of the NASCAR community.
Of course, not every NASCAR collector is in it for the current or future value of the item. For example, there are completionist collectors who collect every diecast or hat they can find for one specific driver or team.
Finally, there are those who, plain and simple, like Hocevar, and want to show their pride in whatever they can.
After all, whether it’s his social media presence, his on-track actions, or off-track persona, Hocevar is proving to a lot of drivers in the garage that personality goes a long way.
But, nonetheless, these different groups have all combined to make a highly competitive marketplace for Hocevar’s merchandise, pushing prices to levels that, just a handful of years ago, seemed highly unlikely for the upstart Rookie just promoted from the Craftsman Truck Series.
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iRacing has finally given NASCAR fans a first look at the in-game model of the NASCAR Ram Truck slated to join the racing sim’s lineup in the near future.
Though iRacing says the Ram model is still pending approvals, this announcement marks a major milestone for Ram in its 2026 return to NASCAR, as this is the first appearance the brand will make in motorsports gaming in well over a decade.
Of course, the next major question facing Ram will be its inclusion in iRacing’s next edition of their console-based NASCAR game series, which most expect to be titled NASCAR 26.
iRacing was open about its use of models from its self-titled subscription-based online racing service for NASCAR 25. But, as of press time, they have yet to announce any details about the next game, although it’s fair for players to assume the Ram model used for iRacing will likely be used in the next NASCAR console game.
The NASCAR news for iRacing Season 2 didn’t stop at Ram, as iRacing also confirmed that the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, a new addition to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule in 2026, will join its track list during Season 2.
iRacing also confirmed tweaks to the in-game physics of both the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, focused on updating the series’ in-game drafting model.
But the biggest news of all (beyond Ram, of course) is that iRacing plans to have NASCAR’s San Diego Street Circuit at Naval Base Coronado ready for play before the end of the 2026 season, with the Development Update claiming they are targeting a release date sometime in June.
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