MADISON, Ill. — Saturday night’s (Sept. 12) NASCAR O’Reilly Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway saw something that the NASCAR world hasn’t seen in years: an accident that completely blocked pit road.
The first eight cars made it through clean, cars toward the front of the line checked up, Nick Sanchez ran into the back of Rajah Caruth, a half-dozen cars piled in, and the rest were trapped behind the roadblock that engulfed the narrow pit road.
In the midst of the calamity, three crew members from the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 team were struck by Caruth’s No. 88 and Sanchez’s No. 87, and the NASCAR world held its breath as it awaited news on the condition of the crew.
Thankfully, Joe Gibbs Racing posted that all three escaped serious injury in an accident that had the potential to end far worse than it did.
Terry Spalding, Joe Gibbs Racing’s pit crew coach for the O’Reilly Series, offered an update to Frontstretch on the crew’s condition after the race.
“Everyone is OK as far as we know now,” Spalding said. “They’re just bruised; they were able to keep pitting. They did have two more pit stops, so nothing serious, but three of them are pretty bruised up.
“They had a bruised rib, I think, and a knee and a hip. So they’ll be feeling it tomorrow morning, but thankfully they are OK.”
Upon exiting the care center, Sanchez was unsure of what happened until he saw a replay on the CW broadcast.
“I was tight up against the No. 88 (Caruth) and he abruptly stopped,” Sanchez said. “I tried my best to stop … the next thing you know, I was up in the air and whoever was behind me, behind him, behind that person, we just all piled in there. …
“I’ve had pit road incidents and spins and all that, but I’ve never had like a dead stop to pit road like that.”
Sanchez and Harrison Burton were the two drivers that had their days ended in the massive pileup.
“It’s like a wreck on I-77, I guess,” Burton said. “I couldn’t tell what caused it. All I saw was, I guess there’s a No. 51 (Jeremy Clements) in front of me. I was right on his bumper running my lights, and he just ran into the guy in front of him, we ran into the guy in front of him, and it looked like I got the worst of it.”
Caruth rebounded from the damage to finish 11th. But since he missed out on stage points as a result of the incident, Saturday night marked a sizeable hit to his title hopes, as he now sits 118 points behind the lead with seven races left.
“It’s super narrow where the commitment line is,” Caruth said. “Just the width of the pit road is super narrow, so I’m not surprised that it happened, but that’s why you do your homework during the week and know where your pit stall is, so you don’t have that happen.”
The driver that needed to do his homework, at least according to Anthony Alfredo, was William Sawalich.
“I haven’t seen exactly what happened, but the one replay I got to see, it looked like the No. 18 (Sawalich) about missed his box and slammed on the brakes and tried to make it and caused a wreck,” Alfredo said. “And then he completely lost it later in the race too and went after the No. 17 (Corey Day).”
Alfredo received damage in the wreck, cut a tire under green shortly after, and was relegated to 22nd at the finish.
“So yeah, leave it to someone out of the Chase to cause chaos for all those guys racing for a championship and take out of a bunch of others like us who are still trying to maximize our points too,” Alfredo continued.
In terms of size, Saturday night’s accident was arguably the biggest on pit road since a roadblock that collected numerous cars in the 2020 Brickyard 400. And while Gateway has a particularly narrow pit road compared to other tracks, Spalding doesn’t believe any improvements are needed for the track’s pit road.
“I think NASCAR has done a terrific job,” Spalding said. “I started pitting in 1995 or 1996, and it’s come a long way since then, and NASCAR has done a really good job. So no, nothing comes to mind. They’re got rules in place and safety measures in place that are pretty good.”
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Find Stephen on Twitter @stephen_stumpf
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