Both the complexion of the NASCAR Cup Series playoff picture and the new In Season Challenge were turned figuratively upside down with a 18-car crash on Saturday night at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
It was triggered on Lap 69 as a result of contact between Denny Hamlin, the top seeded driver in the tournament, and John Hunter Nemechek, and collected nearly half the field along the backstretch.
Others involved in the crash included pole sitter Joey Logano, Chase, William Byron, Daniel Suarez, Carson Hocevar, Ross Chastain, Kyle Larson, Brad Keselowski, Austin Cindric and Josh Berry.
A huge incident involving many drivers entering Turn 3! pic.twitter.com/SUqVofDprQ
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) June 29, 2025
What happened, Blaney?
“I couldn’t see much,” Blaney said. “As soon as they started spinning and coming down, I tried to get to the apron and finally got there and got blocked. Story of our year: Getting caught up in other people’s garbage. As soon as I feel like we get it going pretty good and find some momentum, we never really seem to have things going our way. Tried to flip the stage and was right in the middle of it. Stinks and that’s the way it goes sometimes. We’ll be back and go at it in Chicago next week. I definitely thought we could improve (the car) in dirty air, but I was excited to work through it during the night and never got the chance.”
Berry spent much of the first stage up front alongside Logano.
“I have no idea really what happened,” Blaneys said. “It looked like they were just pushing each other hard for 8th, 10th, 12th like that and got squirrely. It’s just disappointing getting taken out and having that happen with this many laps left. It’s tough, but (Team Penske) had the four fastest cars yesterday. We were doing our best to fend off all the battles and work with each other at the beginning. Everyone on our 21 team and everybody at Team Penske have a lot to be proud of for how yesterday and the start of the race went. Unfortunately, we just got swept up in somebody else’s mess.”
It was a similar sentiment from Logano too.
“I was in the middle of it, so I haven’t seen a replay yet to know what happened,” Logano said. “Cars are sideways, and you get in the brakes, and everyone is just running into each other. Just a speedway wreck, especially with everyone so tight on the restart. Wrong place at the wrong time. We tried to win the stage and unfortunately didn’t’ get that done, and then you have to pay the piper and go to the back. It’s unfortunate that it happens. The Penske cars were so strong, so fast. It’s part of the game sometimes. Sometimes you’re the ball, sometimes you’re the bat. Today we’re the ball.”
Chase Briscoe, who won last week at Pocono, had spent half an hour having his car repaired before NASCAR declared them out of the race.
“Yeah, I don’t know how bad our damage was,” Briscoe said. “They were fixing it, and we were about ready to go, and I guess NASCAR came over there and saw that our chassis was broke or bent or something and were like, you can’t go back out. So, kind of a waste of 30 minutes working on it. Just unfortunate night for our Bass Pro Shops Toyota. Kind of missed the balance at the beginning and was behind, and then that big wreck – had nowhere to go. Looking forward to two road courses coming up. I think our road course program has been pretty good. Hopefully a JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) car or a Toyota can win. Just unfortunate day for us.”
The playoff implications are massive too as the only drivers on the lead lap after the crash that had previously won this season were Shane Van Gisbergen and Kyle Larson.
So the race could also impact the provisional playoff bubble because a surprise winner could ultimately eliminate a driver who was otherwise safe on points with other wild card races like Chicago, Sonoma, Watkins Glen and Daytona still remaining.
As far as the In-Season Tournament, which will ultimately pay $1 million to the winner after five weeks of head-to-head single elimination match-ups, this race will upend the results heading into Downtown Chicago as well.
