Rain during NNS qualifying causes big wreck at Daytona (VIDEO)
A sudden rainstorm on the backstretch of Daytona International Speedway during NASCAR Nationwide Series knockout qualifying led to a multi-car wreck involving a total of nine cars.
With less than eight minutes left in the first of three sessions, a pack of cars left pit road for one last attempt to better their qualifying times. As the pack got up to speed on the backstretch, a downpour of rain soaked the track and sent cars sliding and wrecking all over the track.
Mike Bliss' No. 19 Toyota was the first car to lose control, as the cars behind him scrambled to avoid his spinning car while trying to keep their car under them as well.
When the cars came to a rest a total of nine cars were involved, including Bliss, Eric McClure, Robert Richardson Jr., Scott Lagasse Jr., Benny Gordon, Ross Chastain, Joe Nemechek, Matt DiBenedetto and Blake Koch.
One of the most frustrating and odd things I've been a part of. Clear skies then a wall of rain and spinning cars. #floridaweather.
— Scott Lagasse (@scottlagasse) July 4, 2014
Hardest hit was TriStar Motorsports, who had four of their five cars involved in the incident.
After the incident, NASCAR sent the Air Titans out to help speed up the track drying efforts.
As track-drying efforts continued, NASCAR officially ended the first round of qualifying. As a result the cars of Koch, DiBenedetto, Tommy Joe Martins, Bobby Gerhart and Benny Gordon failed to make the field for Friday night's race.
NASCAR eventually ended the session early, giving the pole to rookie Dakoda Armstrong. Trevor Bayne, Chris Buescher, Ryan Reed and Kyle Busch rounded out the top five for Friday night's race.
Regan Smith had to overcome a late-race green-white-checkered restart, fuel mileage concerns and much more, but in the end it was a hard charge by Kasey Kahne that proved too much for Smith to handle on Friday night at Daytona International Speedway.
In dramatic fashion, Kahne used a huge push from Ryan Sieg down the backstretch on the final lap to move to the outside of Kyle Larson in second to nip Smith at the line by 0.021 seconds to score the NASCAR Nationwide Series win at DIS.
