The surreal crash at NASCAR’s O’Reilly Series No. 225 on Saturday could have been so much worse.
The end of the first stage saw a 10-car crash on the pit road and the entire field entered with new tyres. It began with Rajah Caruth No. 88 cars getting pulled over and ended up with the road fully covered and the race on ice.
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Caruth, Brandon Jones, Harrison Burton, Dean Thompson, Jeb Burton, Ryan Sieg, Patrick Staropoli, Jeremy Clements, Nicholas Sanchez and Anthony Alfredo were all involved, with some sustaining a loss of speed.
There were bigger concerns for the Brent group in car No. The crew had already lined up and were getting to work when Sanchez’s car veered into the right back, coming within inches of significant contact with substitute Bryan Backus.
If Backus had behaved a second or two slower, this would have been a different story. Amazingly, it appears that no crew members were injured.
The crash forced Sanchez, Burton and Clements to retire, but the race resumed after about 20 minutes. This was the second race of the O’Reilly Series postseason Chase, with Jones and Caruth in contention for eighth and 12th in Saturday’s standings.