A relatively calm Duck Commander 500 erupted late Saturday night when Austin Dillon triggered a multi-car pileup with 46 laps remaining. Dillon got loose in front of Denny Hamlin, slid up the track and spun in front of the field, setting off the melee of cars that kept piling in.
When the smoke cleared, a total of 13 cars had been involved with varying degrees of damage. Among those involved were Dillon’s Richard Childress Racing teammates Paul Menard and Ryan Newman. Meanwhile, Brian Vickers and Clint Bowyer were the only two involved that ended up with terminal damage. The duo finished 37th and 38th, respectively.
“We were on older tires and I was trying to get all I could there,” Dillon said after the accident. “It tore up a bunch of race cars. We had a good car. I just wish we could re-do it.”
The bright spot for Dillon was that, before the wreck, the No. 3 Chevrolet had the speed the team has become accustomed to.
“We had another fast race car,” he continued. “We’ll go on from here.”
The wreck also collected Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., who qualified fifth and had set himself up for a top-10 finish. He ended up 16th.
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