Entering Turn 3, Tyler Reddick was getting a push from Kevin Harvick. He got loose and slammed the outside wall.
While Ross Chastain narrowly avoided, others weren't so lucky. Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, Erik Jones, and Daniel Suarez were all collected. Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr. also got a piece of it.
Elliott, Jones, and Reddick were unable to return to the race. Blaney continued on with significant damage, later losing a right front tire.
“It looked like some guys got tangled up, upfront," said Elliott. "Those of us in the back were just scattering to kind of miss it. It looked like the No. 5 (Kyle Larson) and the No. 43 (Erik Jones) kind of went to the apron. By the time we got slowed up, they were coming back across the track and I was the lucky winner to get there first. It’s a bummer.. long ways to go. Hate to end the day, but it is what it is.”
After a clean first half, it’s all gone wrong. 💥 Several contenders eliminated in this crash. #DAYTONA500 #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/DF8cRaVWhU
— Motorsport.com (@Motorsport) February 19, 2023
"Down the back when he (Harvick) got to my rear bumper it just didn’t really seem – when I had clean air there – that my car was really stable," said Reddick, after being released from the infield care center. "I thought it moves around a little bit down the back, I’ve had this before, but yeah, I was kind of caught off guard by what happened in the corner. Unfortunately, it was the first time I’ve been put in that situation, I got loose and unfortunately took out some other good cars.”
He later added: "The car just unfortunately didn’t have the stability that it needed to have. It was dancing around a little bit down the back straightaway and a little bump into turn three I would be okay. The car just came around right away and now our car is out of the race and took out a lot of other good cars too.”
Jones offered his thoughts on what happened as well: "It was hard to tell. It looked like the No. 45 (Tyler Reddick) got turned around, but I couldn’t see how it happened. Regardless, we spun out there on the bottom when I was trying to get around it and then I got hit on the left side hard enough to take out the left rear and end our day.
"It is what it is. We were up there; we were racing and we were doing all we could. We were just in the wrong spot at the wrong time. I wish we could have been a little ahead of him.”
The first car to fall out of the race happened earlier, when Ty Dillon lost an engine during the first stage.
