Carson Kvapil started Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts from pole position, but his day ended just three laps into the event. The wreck was something you’d expect to see at a superspeedway, not a 1.5-mile intermediate track…
Driving the No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, Kvapil was running second and battling three-wide with JRM teammates Justin Allgaier and William Byron.
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Byron was to the inside and made contact with the left-rear of Kvapil at the exit of the corner, who fishtailed before spinning up into the outside wall. At the same time, Parker Retzlaff slammed into the rear of the car, lifting it off the ground. The car twirled around in the air, landing on its side before rolling over completely.
It continued to slide down the entire backstretch on its lid before flipping back over a couple more times, coming to rest on the apron near the entrance of Turn 3 and still upside down.
The race was immediately red-flagged for cleanup, which lasted just over 12 minutes. Safety crews carefully rolled the car back over, allowing Kvapil to then climb out of the car under his power.
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“Not too fun,” said Kvapil after being released from the infield care center. “I actually didn’t think it was going to flip over like that but once it started doing that, really didn’t seem too bad. My biggest thing is that I just hate it for this whole Bass Pro Shop team. Rodney [Childers, crew chief] and these guys brought a really fast race car, and I was just hoping to get through the first couple of laps and kind of sort it out … we didn’t really get to that point. All-in-all, it was one heck of a ride. I was not ready for that, just hate it for all the guys. that was a pretty big one.”
Retzlaff, who suffered heavy nose damage, was also checked and released from the infield care center. “I didn’t have any time to react,” commented Retzlaff. “Very aggressive start that really caused a wreck that wasn’t necessary. I’m glad Carson is okay. That’s a wild ride down the backstretch.”
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Kvapil was one of the four Dash4Cash drivers competing for the $100,000 bonus at Kansas, but with a last-place finish and a DNF, he won’t have a shot at the prize.
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