Is the Daytona 500 Ruining the Races as Crashes Get More Violent With the Years?

Motorsports is not for the faint-hearted. Things can go from good to bad to downright scary in a matter of seconds. With cars speeding over 150 mph and driving close to one another, a tiny bump can cause a massive wreck, something which fans have already seen multiple times at the start of this season. The Daytona 500 is yet to start, but the vacations duel already witnessed a tumultuous crash where a 55 G-force impact set Ryan Blaney’s car on fire.

NASCAR has been criticized for its lack of attention to on-track safety before. They have implemented safety tweaks on cars and paved over grassy patches. The Daytona 500 is a case in point, recording an insane number of crashes on the 500-mile-long race. Yet fans crave to witness these wild crashes as an insider points out.

The Daytona 500 is accumulating more wrecks by the year

In a recent post on X, popular NASCAR insider nascarman shared insights on Daytona crashes in the past. And it seems like the number has been piling up over the years.

He tweeted, “In the last 7 years, an average of 78% of the cars in the Daytona 500 are involved in crashes. Last year’s Daytona 530 had 30 cars involved in crashes.”

But in the same tweet, nascarman shared a video where Tony Stewart can be seen siding with this violent trend in a video. He says, “If we haven’t crashed at least 50% of the field by the end of the race, we need to extend the race till we at least crash 50% of the cars. Cuz it’s not fair to these fans for them to not see more wrecks than that.”

Last year’s Daytona 500 race was also not spared from trouble on the racetrack. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. claimed the Harley J. Early trophy, but not before slipping through some crashes. The first caution came after only 12 laps. Kevin Harvick bumped into Tyler Reddick after losing grip on the outside lane. That caused a major domino effect entangling eight cars, including Chase Elliot, Ryan Blaney, Erik Jones, and Daniel Suárez. Elliott faced major suspension damage, while Reddick’s ride was utterly destroyed. Blaney was the only one able to finish the race.

Another crash happened at the end of the race, pulling out half of the remaining field. Then Austin Dillon had spun out, resulting in a crash off of Turn 3.

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But the deadliest crash of 2023 was in August, and that was also in Daytona. Ryan Preece went airborne and barrel-rolled over 10 times after his car slid onto a grass patch. Covered in the Netflix show ‘NASCAR: Full Speed’, this horrific incident left other racers shocked. Everybody could not be more pleased when Preece came out unscathed from his car. The incident revealed major areas that NASCAR had to work on.

The grass of Daytona is an object of dread

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Preece’s deadly crash last year stressed how dangerous it is for cars on grass. As opposed to asphalt, friction increases considerably on grass, making it a no-man’s-land for racers. “I don’t like the grass,” Kevin Harvick, Preece’s SHR teammate, said. “That wreck was more violent than it probably would have been if it wasn’t going from one surface to the next.”

This has prompted NASCAR officials to pave over crucial places at the Daytona Speedway. They have also reviewed aspects of Preece’s car, including the roll bar padding, the roof hatch, and the window net. Drivers were glad to see that the Next Gen car has improved since 2022, considering that it shielded Preece from severe injuries.

The Daytona 500 is almost here after being postponed due to rain yet again. Will the trend of such crashes continue this time too?

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