Violent crash forces stoppage in NASCAR Xfinity race at Bristol

Sheldon Creed was running in 15th place during the first stage of Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Bristol motor Speedway, trying to move forward. But 74 laps into the event, he got hit from behind by Dean Thompson and spun out.

Creed locked the car down and came screeching to a halt at the exit of Turn 4, sitting sideways on the track. Most of the field was able to narrowly avoid, but not Brennan Poole. Poole, who was competing for the Dash 4 Cash bonus alongside Creed and two other drivers this weekend, turned his car hard in a last-ditch effort to avoid a collision.

But it was too late as Poole slammed into the front of Creed’s car with the right side of his No. 44 Chevrolet. The violent impact ripped the entire right-side door off, sending safety foam everywhere. The axle was also torn out with the right rear wheel left lying on the track still attached to the suspension.

Creed emerged from his own car, sarcastically clapping in Thompson’s direction as the remains of his destroyed Haas Factory Team Ford rolled down the track (driverless) before impacting the inside the wall.

The race was immediately halted for cleanup, resulting in a 14-minute red flag. The two remaining Dash 4 Cash drivers in the race are Justin Allgaier and Austin Hill, who will be battling for the $100,000.

Both drivers said they had the wind knocked out of them in the incident, but each of them were evaluated and released from the infield care center.

Drivers okay after scary crash

“Yeah, I feel fine,” said Creed. “Knocked the air out of me there for a second. Yeah, I mean, the 27 [Jeb Burton] was a lucky dog at the moment, and he was doing a really good job holding on to that. And I was just trying to play with things. I was fairly free, just trying to search and (saw) the 17 [Kyle Larson] diamond (the corner) when he was lapping us. And I feel like it worked pretty good. So I went and tried to start working that into my line. And I was just trying to work around the 27 and, I don’t know, the 26 [Thompson] got me a few times by then, and then just got me enough there. So unfortunate…I’m bummed for all of our guys to be taken on stage one like that, but I don’t know. happy to be okay and fight on next week.”

Brennan Poole’s damaged No. 44 Alpha Prime Chevrolet

Photo by: Sean Gardner / Getty Images

Poole offered his own perspective of the wreck, saying: “I was in the top lane. I was already back to the gas. My spotter said, ‘check up, check up, check up.’ The way the banking is here, I couldn’t even see where the 00 [Custer] was at yet. I just started slowing down, and he was right in the middle of track. I started to spin out and I nailed him. So, just kind of unfortunate.

“Hate that two Dash 4 Cash cars got into it. I just kind of stinks … just one of those deals. But everything here happened so fast, and you also can’t really see. Just kind of a tough deal,” Poole stated.