The Toyota drivers were running in sync, bumper-to-bumper, with a new strategy in the Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Leading the charge were Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe, who set the pace for the field and forced the competitors to pick up the pace. Everything seemed to be going according to plan. After hitting the pit road during the green lap runs, the Toyotas had already made their move, but in reply, the Fords couldn’t get in a straight line towards the pit road and brought out the caution.
As the race went green again, it was Bell who was leading the charge of the field and Denny Hamlin right behind him, putting his bumper to good use. With 9 laps to go, the No. 11 car gave the good old bump on the rear end of the No. 20 car, but this wasn’t the cleanest of contact. Rather than pushing Bell ahead on the track, he got loose and slid sideways, catching Chris Buescher with him. Both the driver rammed hard into the inside wall, but the JGR driver had a nasty crash, nose-first into the wall.
Denny Hamlin didn’t know what sparked the wreck that took out his teammate, and jumped on the radio to share his side of the story. “Man…apologies if that’s on me. We weren’t even up to speed yet. I don’t know why that would have wrecked him. When he shot down to the bottom, I wasn’t even sure I was actually on him.”
More Denny Hamlin: “Man…apologies if that’s on me. We weren’t even up to speed yet. I don’t know why that would have wrecked him. When he shot down to the bottom, I wasn’t even sure I was actually on him.” https://t.co/WsiPJXCl2J
— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) April 27, 2025
Fortunately, Bell was okay as he made his way out of the race car. But Chris Buescher wasn’t pleased after being caught in other people’s mess. He wasn’t in the mood for apologies or clarity and sent a blunt message to his team via radio. “It’s junk. That f—— hurt. Dumb——.” Both Bell and Buescher were released from the infield care center, whereas Hamlin will fight it out to see if the Toyotas can get the job done.
This is a developing story.
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