Big wreck in Duel 2 knocks Burton, Bowman out of Daytona 500
A fairly clean race in the second Budweiser Duel came to an end on Lap 36 of 60 when a multi-car wreck occurred coming through the tri-oval, collecting both Jeb Burton and Alex Bowman and ultimately knocking them out of the Daytona 500.
As Jimmie Johnson paced the field, Burton got into the right rear of Sam Hornish Jr. toward the rear of the pack. The contact sent Hornish's car up into Bowman, turning him down the track and clogging the track.
Hornish's car slid across the infield grass, back up the track and made heavy contact with Burton's No. 26 Toyota once again.
Austin Dillon went low to avoid the wreck, but hit the grass and launched into the air briefly. Although he missed the incident, the wild trip through the grass heavily damaged the front of Dillon's No. 3 Chevrolet. The Richard Childress Racing driver was able to bring his car to the attention of his crew, but fell a lap down to the field.
Michael Waltrip and Joey Logano just barely missed the wreck.
Attempting to make his first Daytona 500, Burton had his car destroyed.
"The 9 (Hornish) got into me a bit and it got me really loose and I got to weaving back and forth, and I got back into the 9," Burton said. "These cars are so on edge and it's very disappointing. I hate that we got tore up, but we'll keep fighting."
After the incident, Bowman apologized to his crew, saying he should not have been in that position. Bowman needed to race his way into the Daytona 500 and was quickest in Wednesday's second practice.
While Bowman was not responsible for the incident, he took blame for a move that dropped him through the field and put himself in that position.
"It's my own fault," Bowman said. "I caught the 11 (Denny Hamlin) real fast there and I tried to go to the outside of him and the 19 (Carl Edwards) was behind me and the 19 went with his teammate and I got shuffled to the back. I shouldn't have been there to begin with. I take responsibility on that one. It's my fault. I shouldn't have been there."
With both Duels in the books, the other drivers to miss the race were Justin Marks, Ron Hornaday Jr., Brian Scott and Josh Wise.
