Botched restart causes massive wreck during Martinsville Xfinity Series race
Stage 1 went by without a lot of craziness. Then the Xfinity Series race at Martinsville began Stage 2 and it was a mess of a restart. All week NASCAR fans have talked restarts and that might continue into a second week.
Brandon Jones appeared to miss a shift, maybe a couple of other cars did as well. Then, we had cars driving into the back of each other all the way down the outside row on the restart.
Xfinity Series restarts can be a little wild. These drivers are still developing in many cases. This time, not everyone fired off quickly enough and it was pandemonium. A ton of really fast cars are now crumpled up.
Austin Hill, Riley Herbst, Jeremy Clements, AJ Allmendinger, Corey Heim, Parker Retzlaff, Hailie Deegan, and more were all involved in this wreck.
The Xfinity Series race at Martinsville is going to be wild now. This wreck took out some really fast cars. Not only that, it brought out the red flag because there was so much to clean up. All of those radiators and things got banged up and fluid ended up on the track.
Martinsville is one of the few short tracks where you can get “the big one.” This is a small track and a lot can happen once cars start to get caught up with one another.
This could change the entire race. Teams were coming off of pit stops and cycling through while others had stayed out. A few of these cars are not going to be able to continue tonight. That will cause certain teams to move up and others to have an opportunity to make a move.
Xfinity Series gets hectic early
The biggest consequence of this, Austin Hill was a DNF. Hill had finished in the top-10 in every race of the season. He has two wins and has shown himself to be one of the top championship contenders.
Hill is not going to be able to continue in this one. That opens the door for another driver to pick up points on him in the standings and possibly join him as a winner in the series. Aric Almirola was the Stage 1 winner and Hill’s old teammate Sheldon Creed has been strong during this race as well.
Martinsville causes all kinds of problems. This Xfinity Series race is going to test drivers, their skill, and their patience. As the cautions come out, they have to keep their heads on straight and focus on the task at hand.
Early in this Xfinity Series race, things have not gone great. At least, depending on which driver and team you cheer for. I am very interested to see what other drivers can do with this opportunity.