12 drivers crash in frenzied NASCAR Truck restart melee at Michigan

With just five laps to go in the scheduled distance for Saturday’s NASCAR Truck race at Michigan, 18-year-old rookie Gio Ruggiero and NASCAR Cup star Ross Chastain lined up on the front row for a mad dash to the finish.

Unfortunately for them, neither driver would be part of that fight to the checkered flag. Staying out on old tires with anxious drivers behind them, the pushes from trucks behind came early in the restart zone as Ruggiero tried to wait to accelerate for as long as he could, aiming to shorten the run down into Turn 1.

Leaving the restart zone, tires had already started spinning and trucks began to turn sideways, with Chastain saving his — only to be hooked by Ruggiero as he got turned down the track. 12 trucks were involved in the crash that followed, with Corey LaJoie moving from fifth to first in the chaos.

Chastain’s truck was destroyed, as was the truck of championship leader Corey Heim. Along with them and Ruggiero, the following drivers were listed as being involved in the incident: Jake Garcia, Tanner Gray, Daniel Hemric, Dawson Sutton, Frankie Muniz, Chandler Smith, Andres Perez De Lara, Connor Mosack, and Ben Rhodes.

What happened?

After the race, Ruggiero still wasn’t sure what happened. “Yeah, I don’t know. Have to watch the replay. Haven’t seen it yet, looked at it, (nor) talked about it as a team yet, said the rookie driver for TRICON. “Yeah, it’s unfortunate. We had a really good truck and not sure what happened there. Just felt like I wasn’t ready to go yet. I was right at the start of the restart zone. Just have to look at the replay to see what happened there.”

Heim was directly behind Ruggiero and was trying to push his teammate. On the radio, he seemed frustrated by the teenager’s decision to wait so long in the restart zone.

“Myself and the No. 17 [Ruggiero] just didn’t link up the way we wanted to, and it went down from there,” he said after the race, barely touching on it. “Definitely had the truck to beat today. Just didn’t work out.”

Chastain spoke with FOX Sport’s Bob Pockrass outside the infield care center, saying: “The push came really hard from behind. It felt like a couple trucks connected to come through the 15 [Gray] to me. I haven’t seen a great replay yet, but I was definitely getting pushed before the restart zone, and I didn’t want to jump.”

The race ended up going into triple overtime with Stewart Friesen ultimately capturing the checkered flag, snapping a three-year winless streak.

Photos from Michigan – Race