NASCAR Cup Series

Patrick crashes out of Daytona 500 in nine-car incident

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 10:53 p.m. ET

foxsports

After rain delayed the Daytona 500 for 6 hours, 22 minutes, the action remained relatively tame until Lap 145, when Kevin Harvick moved up the track and clipped Brian Scott, triggering a crash involving nine cars.

"What the hell happened?" asked Danica Patrick, who led two laps before contact with Aric Almirola shot her straight into the wall exiting Turn 4.

Other drivers involved in the wreck were pole-sitter Austin Dillon, Parker Kligerman, Paul Menard, Michael Waltrip, David Gilliland, Kasey Kahne, Marcos Ambrose, Justin Allgaier and Josh Wise.

Menard led a race-high 29 laps before the wreck.

Almirola says he wasn't sure what happened because the crash.

"Somebody got loose up under us and ruined our day," Almirola said. "It's Daytona. We had a really fast Smithfield Ford. Trent (Owens, crew chief) made some good calls on our strategy, and we were racing up there for the lead. We had a mistake on pit road, where I guess we took the jack down pit road and had to make a stop-and-go. That got us a lap down, and we were racing the 18 (Kyle Busch) for the lucky dog and had it for quite some time.

"We had a really fast car. We were racing for the lead, but we were a lap down. It's just a shame to have a car that fast and be torn up."

Later, with the laps winding down in the race, Dillon slid up into Kyle Larson, triggering the second multicar wreck of the evening.

With the pack running through Turns 3 and 4 on Lap 161, Dillon lost control of the No. 3 Chevy, turned Larson and slid up until Casey Mears collected Brian Vickers, Michael Annett, Marcos Ambrose, Brian Scott and Jamie McMurray, drawing the fourth caution.

Dillon caused yet another wreck with six laps remaining in the race. He ran into his new teammate Ryan Newman in Turn 3 and ignited a seven-car wreck. Although Dillon continued on, Newman was posted.