Early 'Big One' takes out multiple Cup Series contenders at Atlanta

The list of Cup Series contenders at EchoPark Speedway decreased significantly at the start of the second stage Saturday night.

Joey Logano described it as a “superspeedway wreck” when 20 drivers were involved on the backstretch. Logano, who dominated the first stage, leading 51 of 60 laps from the pole, was one of the drivers involved. The incident was an accordion effect when the front of the field started to check up for a run, and others drove into the melee.

“It could have been a bad push,” Logano said. “It’s kind of hard to say. I was in the middle of everything. It’s unfortunate. I think it got all of our cars, and the Penske cars were so strong, so fast. It’s unfortunate that it happens, but it’s part of the game sometimes, and sometimes you’re the ball and sometimes you’re the bat. Today we were the ball.”

NASCAR listed those involved as: Logano, Ross Chastain, Ryan Preece, William Byron, Daniel Suarez, Carson Hocevar, Kyle Larson, Chase Briscoe, Corey LaJoie, Denny Hamlin, Cody Ware, Brad Keselowski, Noah Gragson, Justin Haley, Austin Cindric and Josh Berry.

The list was absent of Erik Jones, B.J. McLeod, Kyle Busch and Alex Bowman, all of whom were also involved in some way.

More NASCAR

The RACER Mailbag, July 2

Suarez, Trackhouse to part ways at end of season

Buescher the highest remaining seed as second round match-ups for in-season tournament are set

“A lot of cars,” said Berry of his view. “I have no idea really what happened. It looked like they were just pushing each other hard for eighth, 10th, 12th like that and got squirrely. It’s just disappointing getting taken out and having that happen with this many laps left.” 

Cindric won the first stage, but he was one of eight drivers who had to retire because of the crash.

“A lot of cars wrecking in the middle of the straightaway, which here you kind of more expect it in the middle of the corners, but maybe just a push gone wrong,” Cindric said of what he saw. “It’s hard to say. I had a small chance to get through a gap there, but obviously it didn’t work out. It’s a shame. Obviously, we had a super-fast Quaker State/Menards Ford Mustang. We wanted to keep the thing out front.

“I was looking forward to it because we got back in traffic with staying out to win the stage, but I was looking forward to see what our car was going to do in dirty air and see what final adjustments we needed to make and have that opportunity to learn there.  It’s just a shame for everybody at Team Penske bringing such fast cars and all of them wreck out.”