18 Cars And 11 Trucks Wiped Out In 2 Astonishing Daytona 500 Pile-Ups

A huge crash at the weekend’s Daytona 500 race saw 18 Nascar competitors wiped out of the running – and the footage is incredible.

It almost doesn’t matter who started it, but the 95 and 21 cars of Matt DiBenedetto and Paul Menard touched and spun, creating absolute carnage just a few laps from the end of the famous race. Remember the awesome 1990s/2000s video game series Carmageddon? Then you’ll get the idea.

As cars smashed into each other against the outer wall, they generated an astonishing storm of sparks that engulfed the cars caught in the middle. Check out the footage in the two videos above and imagine what it must have been like to have been sat amongst that…

Denny Hamlin eventually won the restarted race for Toyota, ahead of Kyle Busch.

Eleven trucks were also wiped out of a Nascar Truck Series race at the weekend after the tiniest of nudges sparked yet another calamitous ‘pinball’ chain reaction.

Jordan Anderson, piloting his own number three Jordan Anderson Racing Chevrolet truck, had lost speed on a high line around one of Daytona’s banked bends, allowing the number two GMS Racing car of Sheldon Creed to try for a move up the inside. Anderson moved back just a fraction too late and caught his rear left on Creed’s front right, triggering another disastrously crashy few moments.

Anderson was pinged into another truck before rebounding at speed into the track’s outer wall. He emerged later, clutching his chest and looking understandably delicate. A further 10 trucks were caught up in the ensuing dramatic melee. Sparks and tyre smoke (which, we know, isn’t technically smoke) made it a nightmare for following drivers to see a way through.

The tracks may not be the most dynamic but Nascar racing is often so close that crashes like these are unavoidable. Brett Moffitt, the defending Nascar Truck Series champion and GMS teammate of Sheldon Creed, was among those taken out.