NASCAR trucked 23,000 cubic yards of dirt into Bristol Motor Speedway so it could hold this past weekend’s inaugural dirt race at the fan-favorite half-mile track. The event was generally considered a success, but NASCAR and its competitors seem to still be adjusting to the world of dirt track racing – as evidenced by this comedic clip of a Chevy Silverado HD crashing into John Hunter Nemechek’s stricken race truck while under caution.
DAY IS DONE. 😱@JHNemechek | #ItsBristolBaby pic.twitter.com/IA3poSSDPi
— BristolMotorSpeedway (@BMSupdates) March 29, 2021
This clip is from the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Bristol dirt race, which was held just prior to the NASCAR Cup Series race on Monday. John Hunter Nemechek had retired from the race early on after he spun out, hit the outside wall and was hit by fellow competitor Derek Kraus. As Nemechek waited on the side of the track for his No. 4 Toyota Tundra to be cleared away, a Chevy Silverado HD service vehicle that was tending to the track began to slide across the surface toward the apron before striking Nemechek’s race truck and pushing it into the inside retaining wall.
Nemechek’s Kyle Busch Motorsports team probably wasn’t very happy with the driver of the Chevy Silverado HD here, but this little impact ultimately wasn’t a very big deal. Nemechek’s truck had already incurred significant front-end damage after the impact with Kraus and it doesn’t look as though this mistake caused any additional harm. It also seems as though there was little the Silverado driver could do to avoid the impact once the rear end began sliding down the track toward the apron.
The race was eventually won by Martin Truex Jr., who beat Truck Series regular Ben Rhodes to the finish by a little over a second. Truex led 105 of 150 laps en route to the victory, which was his first at Bristol since 2006.
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