The Las Vegas Speedway saw a crash that blew the playoff picture wide open. Tyler Reddick and Chase Elliott were involved and both of them ended up out of the race. Following that chaotic incident, Elliott now sits -53 points below the cutline while Reddick is -30 points below. Homestead, Miami has suddenly become a pivotal race for both these drivers to keep their Championship 4 hopes alive.

Since crashes happen quite often in NASCAR, why is there so much outrage over this one in particular? Well, it’s because Tyler Reddick went into the grass at such a high speed that it caused his car to flip in what was a heart-stopping moment. Fortunately, the No. 45 driver was able to drive it to the pit lane, but his race ended because of the severe damage to his car. This crash raised safety concerns across the NASCAR world, with the Speedway Motor Inc. being called into question.

From opening stage victory to a finish in the last row

Tyler Reddick got off to an incredible start by winning stage 1, but the events that followed were less than memorable. In the 89th lap, the No. 45 attempted a three-wide with Chase Elliott and Martin Truex Jr and caught them completely off guard. Truex slightly bumped into Elliott, which would have been fine given the space the No. 9 had between the wall and himself. However, Reddick swooped in aggressively on the outside and caused a chain reaction, which saw Elliott bump him into the wall and spin out. Truex Jr. escaped unscathed while Reddick spun out and his car flipped over on the grass.

The aftermath of this crash attracted severe criticism of the safety measures. The grass being so close to the track was the key criticism of the Motor Speedway. Drivers are so aggressive these days because of the Next-Gen cars and this leads to more wheel-to-wheel action. Having grass so close to the track can cause chaos in the event of a crash, as we saw on Sunday. Reflecting on the accident on tracks, Reddick mentioned, “In the moment you try and not take any extra risks. You don’t need to. But looking at those two battling… Yes they got there late around the corner, this is just how restarts are”. Reddick led 9 laps and could not continue after the crash, ultimately finishing in P35. The crash broke the left front upright of Reddick, which forced him to switch to a backup car for Miami next week.

Despite Martin Truex Jr. contributing significantly to the spin, Tyler Reddick did not blame him for his involvement. Instead, he was quite compassionate and spoke about the human element of racing. Recollecting the accident on the track and Truex’s contribution to the same, Reddick said, “Unfortunately, it just sounded like Martin didn’t know that I was going to get outside of the nine and we just all came together. Mistakes happen. I mean, it’s the human element. These things happen it’s just a part of it. We can go back and look at it all we want. But it’s a result we got. We’re gonna look at it in Homestead, get a car ready, and go down there very very motivated to run up front all day, score stage points, and hopefully win the race.” Despite the major blow, Reddick seemed optimistic about the upcoming race at Homestead, Miami.  

Denny Hamlin shares his thoughts about the Vegas flip

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The crash raised eyebrows around the NASCAR world and veteran Denny Hamlin in particular. In an episode of his podcast, Actions Detrimental, Hamlin raised concerns regarding the safety of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “It’s unfortunate, and certainly, we don’t have any kind of standard of consistency when it comes to the grass and the infield and what we have on a mile-and-a-halves. If we’re so hellbent on these cars not flipping, because we think that’s a problem, what are they going to do about Las Vegas? If the other issues were a car problem, this is a track problem. So are we going to fix the track problem?”

Hamlin feels the safety of the drivers is being compromised by inconsistencies in track design. He is not alone in feeling this way; the entire NASCAR community is upset that drivers were not consulted before designing tracks. The 23XI co-owner feels the SMI (Speedway Motor Inc.) should do more for track safety and not just focus on issues that involve car problems. Las Vegas put things into perspective regarding how dangerous race tracks can be. No one wants to see a car get flipped over and in Vegas, the grass is what caused that.

With Miami up next, do you think another crash is going to write the script for these playoffs?