Four of the 36 races in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season are checked. Apart from all the race strategies that are being yelled at across team offices right now, the one constant demand from drivers would be to not wreck their cars. Thirty-four cars have failed to finish due to an accident in these four races. That’s the most since 1958. So, what inspired this surge?
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The Daytona International Speedway and the Atlanta Motor Speedway are drafting-style tracks. So, more than fuel saving and car handling precision, it is luck that plays a bigger factor in deciding who finishes a race. 35 of the 41 cars in this year’s Daytona 500 were involved in an accident, based on NASCAR’s race report.
Denny Hamlin crashed out in the final lap, ending his chance to win a fourth Daytona 500. He later said on Actions Detrimental, “I hate that what is supposed to be our most prestigious race, a showcase of heroes, is luck. It is luck. I don’t care how else you want to say it. It is luck. It’s luck because … you just have to avoid the wrecks.”
William Byron, who expertly avoided the wreck that Hamlin was caught in, ended up reaching victory lane. Ryan Preece was another driver who wrecked in a major way. His car went airborne. Fortunately, the scary sequence did not result in him suffering many physical injuries. But the issues on superspeedways became glaringly transparent.
In the first 4 races of 2025, 34 cars have failed to finish due to an accident.
This is the most through 4 races of a NASCAR Cup Series season since 1958. pic.twitter.com/9X7yMvntgf
— NASCAR Insights (@NASCARInsights) March 11, 2025
Similar scenes occurred in Atlanta as well, with drivers including Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski, and Joey Logano being caught in multi-car crashes. The third race of the season went down in the Circuit of the Americas. One might have expected the number of wrecks to come down, considering the nature of road courses. But that wasn’t the case.
The dangerous Turn 1 in COTA that contributes to chaos
In Turn 1 at COTA, drivers climb up an 11%-grade, 133-foot hill. At the top of it, they brake abruptly to make a tight left turn. The hope is that every other driver can do the same. It is easily understandable why this would be a dangerous part to race at. Moreover, this isn’t the final challenge that they will face. It is the first after the green flag is waved.
They can’t see the top of the hill, and they have to brake hard when they reach it. A bunch of fans sit there waiting for someone to cause a big wreck. Makes things a lot harder. It is under all this pressure that Ross Chastain dive-bombed Chase Elliott in the race there. He immediately knew that he was in the wrong and spent the race hoping not to get wrecked in return.
Elliott’s hopes of winning the event went down the drain with that, and he settled for fourth place. The monetary damage that team owners suffer when a car wreck is high, to say the least. This 67-year-old stat that the first four races of the 2025 Cup Series season have broken wouldn’t have let them sleep easy.
