Fourteen cars of the twenty-five-car field were involved in this huge crash during lap 45 of 75 of the Sprint Unlimited preseason exhibition race today. Who said exhibition races weren't exciting? They were lying. Never listen to them again.
Once Jamie McMurray lost control of his car due to a punt from Greg Biffle on lap 45, he went into a spin. The problem is that this happened when all the cars were bunched together. Everyone behind them had little chance of avoiding the giant pileup that ensued.
"I didn't know I was airborne until I felt it come down," driver Denny Hamlin said, as quoted on . "That was pretty good hang time."
Matt Kenseth is perhaps the luckiest of them all. The cars just seemed to part to let his car right on through. He ended up winning the entire race outright, but not without whatever force field guided him through this massive wreck.
According to NASCAR, the fourteen cars involved in the punt were those of Jamie McMurray, Greg Biffle, Denny Hamlin, Clint Bowyer, Paul Menard, Kevin Harvick, Tony Stewart, Aric Almirola, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Kasey Kahne, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Yeah, so, exhibition races: totally worth the watch despite not being worth anything in the regular season.
[Edit: We originally reported that this was on a restart, and that was not the case. My apologies for the confusion; there was a restart a bit earlier and this caused a restart, but this wreck wasn't immediately after one.]