Kyle Busch ended a 15-year NASCAR Cup Series winless drought at superspeedways, Ryan Blaney fell just short of ending a 55-race winless drought, and Sunday’s (April 23) GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway was yet another superspeedway finish to end with a slew of crashes.
But beyond those storylines, the biggest concern was the late collision between Kyle Larson and Ryan Preece.
Larson was spun into the turn 1 grass after a crash on a late restart, and as his car rolled up the banking, he was drilled in the passenger’s side door by an oncoming Preece.
Preece either did not see Larson spinning, was not relayed the message of Larson spinning or thought that Larson would not drift up the banking. Regardless of the reason, the result was an impact that twisted and broke the support beams of Larson’s roll cage.
Before analyzing the crash any further, let’s be thankful that the impact was on the right side. If the impact was on the driver’s side, that’s either a serious injury or a fatality.
Given last year’s safety issues with the Next Gen car, it would be easy to put the blame on the car. That much damage is a significant failure of the roll cage, but before all the blame is put on the new car, it’s important to remember that it was a vicious hit. After all, Preece himself said it was the hardest hit in his career, and his onboard is incredibly difficult to watch.
It’s also uncommon to have another crash to compare impacts to, as cars are running at different speeds and collide with each other at different angles on varying degrees of banking; no two crashes are ever the same.
There is not a perfect match to compare the Larson-Preece collision to, but last year’s August NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway featured a crash that is about as close as one can get for comparison.
On lap 83 of the 2022 Wawa 250, John Hunter Nemechek and Sheldon Creed got together on the backstretch. The collision sent Creed spinning back into oncoming traffic, and he too was drilled by an oncoming Joe Graf Jr.
The impact destroyed both cars and as seen in the thumbnail, the impact dented the roof and the entire chassis of the No. 2 car.
Of course, it’s not the same crash. This one was on the backstretch with no banking, while the Preece-Larson crash was in the middle of a turn with a ton of banking. But between the two…
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