Zane Smith’s car flipped over after he rode the wall in Turns 3 and 4 late in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas.
Smith got pinched into the outside wall by John Hunter Nemechek on the first lap of a two-lap overtime restart following a spin for Carson Hocevar. As Smith’s car was pinned between Nemechek’s and the wall, the front end lifted off the ground and the car turned on its side and slid along the wall before it tumbled down the track to a stop.
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Smith was able to get out of the car himself after track personnel arrived on his car.
The crash caused a red flag for NASCAR to clean up after the crash.
Once the race resumed, Chase Elliott came from fifth to first on the final lap to score the victory. Denny Hamlin got a huge run on the penultimate lap to go from fourth to second and was racing Bubba Wallace — who drives for Hamlin’s 23XI Racing team — for the win. As Hamlin dove to the inside of Wallace in Turns 3 and 4 on the final lap, he drifted up the track and Wallace hit the wall.
That slowed the two cars enough to give Elliott a clear shot through on the inside towards the finish line and sneak past Hamlin for the win. Christopher Bell finished third ahead of Chase Briscoe while Wallace fell all the way to fifth before the checkered flag.
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“Just super disappointing,” Hamlin said after the race. “I wanted it bad. It would have been [win No.] 60 for me. The team just did an amazing job with the car, just really, really fast. Gave me everything I needed. Got the restart I needed. Just couldn’t finish it there on the last corner.”
Wallace, meanwhile, was not too thrilled with his boss. As Hamlin is comfortably 27 points ahead of the playoff cutoff line heading into the last race of the second round at the Charlotte Roval next week, Wallace is 27 points back of it.
“Two years ago I’d probably say something dumb,” Wallace said. “He’s a dumbass for that move. I don’t care if he’s my boss or not. But we’re going for the win. I hate that we gave it to Chevrolet there.”
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