Utah, Check Out This Terrifying NASCAR Wreck

Anyone familiar with “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” understands that America is all about speed.

Hot, nasty bad-a** speed.

And if that statement hit’s you in the feels, then there’s a good chance you are familiar with the sport of NASCAR, aka the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing.

NASCAR was established in 1948 and has been America’s premier motorsport ever since, introducing fans to daring drivers, imminent danger and the thrill of unbridled speed.

It’s biggest race, the big daddy of the season, is it’s opener.

The Daytona 500 is considered “NASCAR’s super bowl” and kicks off the season on a 31 degree, banked track out at Daytona beach.

With speeds exceeding 190 miles per hour and bumper to bumper racing, it’s easy to see why racing fans make sure they don’t miss this one.

At it’s peak, 2006 to be precise, The Daytona 500 drew more TV viewers than the NBA finals, World Series and the Stanley Cup Finals with a total audience of 20 million.

Although not as popular as it was in the late 90’s through the mid 2000’s, the race still garners a ton of interest with the last few seasons seeing numbers above 8 million.

Now I would be lying if I said everybody at the track or at home watching the “Great American Race” was solely interested in the drivers, the cars, the strategy or the speed.

Any conversation with a casual fan would tell you that there are plenty who are there for the carnage.

The spins, the hits, the wrecks, which as scary as they are, are an expected part of the pack racing one see’s at a track like Daytona.

A big pileup isn’t a question of if, but rather when.

But these aren’t the average fender benders you might see on the way to the grocery store, these are high speed, high risk wrecks that will make you wonder why anyone would want to do it for a living.

These wrecks are so big, so crazy and so unthinkable that even if you didn’t tune in for the race, you are bound to see it circulating on social media.

Take for example, this year’s event that witnessed only 24 of the 41 cars finish on the lead lap.

The race was won by William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports in the famous #24 Chevy, as cars wrecked in front of him on the last lap:

But for as drama filled as that was, it was far and away from the craziest wreck of the day.

The real breath-taker came with 5 laps to go in the race, when the #20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Christopher Bell was sent into the outside wall off of a shaky bump draft attempt from the #41 of Cole Custer.

Bell’s Toyota collided hard before bouncing back into the oncoming traffic, resulting in a massive collision with the #60 Roush-Fenway-Keselowski Ford of Ryan Preece.

I could tell you about the wheelie that #60 pulled soon after or just let you view it for yourself:

Like a matchbox car in a sand box, the Ford lifts like a sheet of paper going over once before flipping back onto 4 wheels, colliding with the wall and sliding down the track in a crumpled heap.

Preece was ok, and walked away soon after.

For Ryan, a full time Cup series driver of 5 years going on six, this isn't the first time he’s launched a 3,500 pound stock car off the ground due to no fault of his own.

At the same track last season in August, Preece didn’t just flip once, but rather close to a dozen times in one of the most insane flips in NASCAR history as seen below:

To walk away from both of these incident’s is a testament to the safety in modern Motorsport, but should be a chilling warning that no protocol, regulation or modification is safe enough.

Ryan Preece himself made that abundantly clear in his post race interview:

A race car is exactly that, there’s no sugar coating that these things are dangerous, and these drivers understand that when they strap in on Sunday’s.

Ugly as they may be, wrecks are a byproduct of a sport that loves to go fast and will continue to be so as long as they start their engines.

But even with the understood risk, how to make these car’s as safe as possible should always be priority #1.

Reddit user, SensationalSaturdays, pointed out that since the year 2006, NASCAR has had at least one car flip at the highest level of the sport, marking 19 straight seasons.

From implementing roof flaps to taking out portions of grass on the track, NASCAR has tried and will likely continue to try to find ways to stop that streak as it stands.

NASCAR next takes the track at Atlanta Motor Speedway this Sunday at 1:00 Utah time.