The Chaotic Daytona lived up to its name! We saw it all in the Coke Zero 400 race this past weekend with unpredictability soaring high. Harrison Burton rose like a phoenix from the ashes to pick his first and NASCAR’s oldest team, Wood Brothers Racing’s 100th win in the competition. Kyle Busch once again fell short, albeit by a short margin to end his winless streak. However, what turned the race into a real thriller and a pain point for drivers were the seven crashes and three ‘big ones’ that took half the field out of contention.

Despite NASCAR concentrating on wind tunnel testing and making changes after Corey LaJoie’s surprise Michigan rollover the weekend prior, several high-profile names were left to bite the dust as two out of three ‘big ones’ ensued owing to airborne cars. The ordeal left Joey Logano, who also finished with a DNF, utterly frustrated.

In a post-race interview, the 2022 Cup Series champion came down heavily on NASCAR as he criticized how crash prone races have become. “Speedway racing’s really cool until you wreck,” the driver said before continuing, “I don’t have the solution. It’s part of the racing; the pushes and the shoves are so intense, the cars are so low and rigid and out of control when you start pushing each other…It just becomes a mess. Really got to make the cars handle better when they get pushed, or make them so that can’t get to each other that easy. If we do nothing, we’ll just keep crashing. But if that’s what they (NASCAR) want, they’ve got it.” 

The #22 driver, who was on a streak of unpleasant finishes, and looking to move up the regular season standings, met his end on Lap 152. While racing three-wide in a corner, McDowell was in the lead when his car lost control and turned after a nudge by Austin Cindric. The #22, coming from behind, collided with the #34, sending him up in the air and landing upright, avoiding a rollover. A total of 14 cars were involved in the crash, including Justin Haley, Larson, and Reddick.

However, at the end of his monologue, he also admitted that the races are “entertaining”. Well, Logano’s not wrong though.

Just ahead of last weekend, NASCAR had mandated air-deflectors above the right-side window to match an existing ‘shark fin’ on the left side. This was supposed to make liftoffs and blow-over crashes harder. But in all honesty, not much changed as, besides the #34, Josh Berry also went airborne on the backstretch just two laps to go. And who can forget last year’s horrific Daytona wreck when Ryan Preece rolled more than a dozen times in the air?

On Lap 156 of the regular season finale race, Erik Jones’ No. 43 nudged Preece’s No. 41, sending his car on a somersaulting spree. The crash was unlike anything viewers had seen in a long time, and though the driver was unhurt, it put focus on how frequent airborne incidents have become.

As for this year, not just wrecks, but the action-packed race also saw a fire incident that literally took Daniel Suarez’s breath away, leaving him with a DNF. The #99 driver was entering his initial pit stop early in the race when a backfire from Denny Hamlin’s #11 ignited Suarez’s trunk. Funnily, the Trackhouse Racing driver said though he could feel the heat, he didn’t even realize there was a fire—the driver has swapped his rearview mirrors with rear cameras, which didn’t show the sparks.

However, the race again reached back to its stage 1 calm when a contact between Corey LaJoie and Noah Gragson on Lap 60 disrupted the field involving 16 drivers. Ross Chastain, Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott, Erik Jones, William Byron, Denny Hamlin, Corey LaJoie, Martin Truex Jr, Ryan Preece, Tyler Reddick, Kyle Larson, Daniel Hemric, Ryan Blaney, Austin Dillon, Christopher Bell and John Hunter Nemechek were involved, while Gragson, Elliott, Prrece and Hamlin were unable to continue further. Then on Lap 152, McDowell’s incident involved 14 cars, including Bubba Wallace, Kyle Larson, Justin Haley and recent victor Tyler Reddick.

After last weekend, apart from Burton’s surprise win, the only other thing on everyone’s minds has certainly been the wrecks. Hence, further speaking of the Next Gen car, Logano confirmed that NASCAR’s efforts seemed to have failed.

Nothing changed according to Logano

“When we add the roof flaps or the hood flaps, the shark fin on the left side, the roof rails…those are all added to make the velocity at which the car will lift off the ground higher,” NASCAR’s Chief Racing Development Officer John Probst had promised last week. The executive had also said that the change would increase the velocity needed for the cars to lift off the ground by another 15% to 20%. However, the crash is proof enough that this experiment failed. Joey Logano testified to it too. When asked if he felt a difference, he said, “It didn’t change anything.”

Michael McDowell was also left wondering in the lead-up to the Daytona-II how effective the changes would be. “I don’t think it’s gonna be terribly different, but there might be some positives from it, too. We’ll see how the cars suck up. Every situation is different and that’s what’s hard about superspeedway racing as rules packages change. Sometimes you’re three-wide in the middle and the car responds like this and sometimes you’re three-wide in the middle, but a car two car lengths off of you and all of a sudden you get something completely new and you’re like, ‘Whoa, where did that come from?’ When guys are caught off guard or just lose it, it’s because there is a situation that they haven’t been in before, so with this deflector I’m sure there will be some of that.”

Assuming that a sport such as NASCAR would be devoid of such incidents might be a stretch. And credit should be given where it’s due. Since Dale Earnhardt terrifying crash, resulting in his death, the stock car racing organization has come a long way. From better neck and head restraints to the SAFER barrier, NASCAR’s strides in ensuring driver safety have resulted in not a single death since that fateful day of February 18, 2001. Just imagine if a driver was to endure a crash of a similar intensity now. There’s a great guarantee that they’d escape unharmed, as did Ryan Newman during the 2020 Daytona 500.

The driver was leading the race on the final lap when his car got loose, hit the outside wall, flipped upside down on his roof, and was then hit by oncoming traffic. The crash can only be described as terrifying, but just the next day, his team confirmed lack of any life-threatening injuries and that he was “awake and speaking”. And by Wednesday, the driver was already out of the hospital. And this was definitely not a miracle but years of learning and unlearning by NASCAR. See for yourself and be the judge:

However, veteran Kenny Wallace would agree to disagree. The former driver also pointed fingers at how much more NASCAR needs to be doing. “Dale Jr and myself, we both said cars are going to flip. I still believe NASCAR racecars are going to flip. You’re just not going to prevent angle of the dangles all the time. Wallace said angles of the dangles. Phrase of the day. Angles of the dangels. So there’s going to be times when you’re not going to stop physics, okay? However, Josh Berry, again, they’re going to flip. I get that.”

All in all, it was an entertaining race that has significantly altered the playoff picture. After Burton’s win, only three spots are left in the top 16. Who do you think it’s gonna be?