Kyle Busch, who won the opening stage, Chase Elliott and Ross Chastain were eliminated from the NASCAR All-Star Race in a crash two laps from the end of the second stage Sunday night at Texas Motor Speedway.
Busch had a right rear tire going down as he led going down the frontstretch. Busch’s car slowed and Chastain, running the low lane, had nowhere to go. He slammed into Busch’s car and launched into the air. At one point only his left rear tire was touching the ground as he rocketed beyond Busch’s car.
Chastain’s car came back on all four tires, bouncing about before running into the back of Elliott’s car, sending Elliott’s car into the wall.
All three were eliminated.
“Just got a flat tire off of (Turn) 4, right rear is flat,” Kyle Busch told FS1. "... We had a really fast race car, great race car, led all the laps to that point, obviously. Disappointing to not be able to finish it out and go race for a million bucks.”
Chastain told FS1: “I saw Kyle have an issue like a tire down and I guessed left and I should have guessed right. Big hits. Big hit into Kyle. Didn’t think the wall would hurt as bad as it did when I hit the wall.”
Elliott told FS1: “I saw (Busch) have a problem and (Chastain) hit him really hard and I just didn’t give him enough room. I knew he was going to go straight. I just didn’t realize he was going to go that far right that quick. I just kind of misjudged it. Really avoidable on my end. I kind of messed up and didn’t get the gap shot quick enough.”
The incident came a few laps after a blown right front tire sent Kyle Larson, who won last year’s All-Star Race, into the wall and out of the race.
Including Larson’s departure, four of the last five All-Star Race winners were out before the halfway mark in the event.