Austin Dillon and Chase Elliott both crashed hard late in Sunday's rain-delayed Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The pair were among the top five in the race when a late-race restart went awry for a host of drivers.
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Jimmie Johnson and Austin Dillon were leading the field on the restart when chaos ensued. Dillon had moved to second after gambling with a two-tire pit stop. As the field was trying to get up to speed, Martin Truex Jr., in third, rear-ended Dillon, whose car immediately began sliding around on the track.Elliott slowed behind them and was hit by Kyle Busch, spinning to the outside wall. Dillon’s car went to the inside and slammed hard into the SAFER barrier heading into Turn 1.
"I think (Dillon) spun his tires," said Elliott, who led 103 laps in the race. "I think they put on just two tires. I think (Truex) was trying to push him and ended up getting him out of shape and then I think (Kyle Busch) didn’t see it and ended up getting into me. I tried to get off the brakes and get down to keep that from happening but definitely unfortunate. We had such a good car and I am devastated that we didn’t get the result that the guys deserved. They gave me such a fast 3M Chevy and that is all you can ask for. We just have got to go and do more of that next week.”
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Truex said on his radio that he was trying to give Dillon a push to help him get going to spark the accident.
The cars of Dillon and Elliott sustained significant damage with the hard hits. Both drivers are contenders in the Chase in this Round of 12, as are Truex and Busch. NASCAR red-flagged the race on Lap 260 to clean up the debris.
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Dillon said after the race that he was not injured.
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“I am fine, it just sucks," he said. "We will have to work hard the next two weeks to get the points back. I felt like I got to third gear pretty clean and then the next thing – I feel contact and I am spinning through the grass. It’s part of it and we took two tires there and you know the risk when you get into it. You just hope that doesn’t happen obviously. I got to third without spinning the tires, and I felt like we got contacted. We will just go on to next week.”
It had already been a rough day for several Chase drivers, most notably Joey Logano — who had just returned to the track 78 laps down to the leaders after hitting the wall twice — and Kevin Harvick, who was still sitting idle in the garage after suffering a loss of power.
Others involved in the restart crash included Jamie McMurray, Clint Bowyer, Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards, Ryan Blaney, Paul Menard, Kurt Busch and Brian Scott.
For Elliott and Dillon, the crash was a critical hit on their championship hopes. Elliott went on to finish 33rd and Dillon was 32nd in the race. That puts them in the bottom four of the Chase after the opening race of this three-race segment.
Dillon said that the setback was particularly upsetting since it came after the team had improved all day and were finally on track for a solid finish. Now, they'll have to wait until Kansas to have a chance at that.
“It’s kind of a heartbreaker because we are good at finishing races and this isn’t what we’ve done all year long," he said. "There are a lot of guys out of it right here. Hopefully, we can get a couple more laps in with our car and get back out there to salvage a few points.”