It didn’t take long for both the racing and weather Sunday (Feb. 14) to escalate in the 2021 Daytona 500.
On lap 14, contact between Christopher Bell and Aric Almirola sent the latter sideways, crashing into Alex Bowman and taking nearly half the field with him. The massive pileup was followed by a lightning delay that put the race in a 30-minute holding pattern.
CRASH!
Multiple contenders are collected in this early accident in the #DAYTONA500. pic.twitter.com/qZro3YXsTj
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) February 14, 2021
Bell had help from Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch and got a shove from the No. 18, in turn pushing Almirola, and ended up hooking the No. 10 into Bowman.
A total of 16 cars were involved in the melee, including Almirola, who won the second Bluegreen Vacations Duel on Thursday. Hendrick Motorsports teammates Bowman and William Byron, along with the entire Roush Fenway Racing stable in Ryan Newman and Chris Buescher were among the victims. Daniel Suarez has also been wrecked in Team Trackhouse’s debut.
Almirola started in the top five after the win Thursday night.
“We were just getting pushed too hard to early,” Almirola said in a Ford Performance release. “It’s a long, long race. Man, we were in a fine position, just sitting there riding around in the top two, three, and the 20 just came with a big run and hit me really hard in a bad spot…it turned me to the right and tore up our race car and ended our Daytona 500 way too early.”
.@NASCARONFOX takes a closer look at what caused this multi-car accident. #DAYTONA500 pic.twitter.com/sS8wJkt9La
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) February 14, 2021
Newman’s race, a year after his horrific wreck at the checkered flag of 2020’s edition, ended after less than 20 laps.
“Somebody crashed in the outside row in front of us and we had nowhere to go and I got hit from some place,” Newman said in the same press release. “I had the wreck missed, but got hit from some place and that was the end of our day…I just wish we could have had some better results.”
Bowman gave his interpretation of the crash afterwards, as well.
“It looks like the No. 10 [Almirola] kind of got turned sideways there and I was the guy that got ran into,” he said. “Bummer – I hate it for Ally. Obviously, we had a really fast Camaro. The Chevrolets were working good together; hopefully a Chevy still ends up in Victory Lane. …Hats off to everybody at Hendrick Motorsports; they built some really fast race cars. Hate that superspeedway racing works out that way sometimes, but that’s just part of the game.”
Bowman, one of the first cars taken out, also voiced his thoughts on Twitter.
Well that was a bummer… pic.twitter.com/QdiP2lLphH
— Alex Bowman (@Alex_Bowman) February 14, 2021
Erik Jones, swept up in the wreck during his debut with Richard Petty Motorsports, posted a succinct tweet that summed up his emotions after the pileup.
Well mom always said if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. Can’t wait for the road course next week.
— Erik Jones (@Erik_Jones) February 14, 2021
David Ragan, as he did last year, was making a one-off start for Front Row Motorsports in the team’s No. 36. The 2011 winner of Daytona’s summer race was running in the top 15 but had nowhere to go, nosing into the outside wall and totaling the Ford Mustang.
“It’s just unfortunate to have a bunch of tore up race cars that early,” Ragan said. “I’ve never met a driver that said ‘Hey, I’m gonna start this 500-mile race and just be super aggressive.’ We all talk about give and take and make it to the end, but it seems nobody does that once they get out there. It’s frustrating that everybody is pushing and shoving and I just saw the 48 get turned…whenever someone wrecks in the top five or six it tears up a lot of cars.”
Minutes after the crash, a lightning strike close to the track forced the cars to pit road for a 30-minute delay. The race remains in a holding pattern.
This story will be updated.
About the author
Adam Cheek joined Frontstretch as a contributing writer in January 2019. A 2020 graduate of VCU, he works as a producer and talent for Audacy Richmond's radio stations. In addition to motorsports journalism, Adam also covered and broadcasted numerous VCU athletics for the campus newspaper and radio station during his four years there. He's been a racing fan since the age of three, inheriting the passion from his grandfather, who raced in amateur events up and down the East Coast in the 1950s.
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Amazing another daytona rain delay. Start the race at 1pm eastern time and the race could get done bf the afternoon rain comes. But we all know the networks want the race to start at noon on the west coast so they will be able to watch after church. In case the networks dont know. There is no nascar market on the west coast. So now after 2 hours of bs pre race and all the hype about denny hamlin and bubba and michael Jordan i finally get to see 20 min of the race. What another joke.
You forgot to mention that Derrike Cope caused a caution, just like he was supposed to do, and it didn’t take long. When CBS began televising the entire race, back when it was a real race, the telecast started at 12:40 and the race got the green at 12:45. EASTERN STANDARD TIME.
I’d be interested to know how often this race was impacted by weather before they started screwing around with the start times in the last 15 years. My guess is not much.