Daytona 500 Latest News, Rumors: Kyle Larson, Michael Waltrip Forced to Back Up Cars after Accident in Practice
Wednesday's evening practice for Daytona 500 turned into a mess after an accident involving six cars caused a red flag, with just about five minutes in the second of two 45-minute sessions. The accident eventually forced a couple of team to prepare a backup car, including those for drivers Kyle Larson and Michael Waltrip.
The six-car accident started when the No. 95 Chevrolet of Ty Dillon went to a slide down the track when a weld failed on the oil cooler, which in turn forced Reed Sorenson to reduce speed when he realized his car was sliding up the track due to the oil. After that, the Toyota car of Waltrip bumped Ryan Newman's Chevrolet, causing it to spin, while the Ford of David Gilliland took a spin and tapped Waltrip. Meanwhile, the Chevrolet of Larson suffered substantial damage when he desperately tried to avoid all those spinning cars in front.
After the incident, Waltrip was quite positive that his team, BK Racing, could fix his primary car in time for the race, saying that the backup wasn't really an option since it was "pretty much in a lot of pieces." Nonetheless, the team decided the primary had significant and major damage that it wasn't possible to have it repaired in time.
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Chip Ganassi Racing also decided to prepare a backup car for Larson, who said after the accident that everything was just unfortunate and no one's at fault. "You have to wreck one in practice here because you kind of assume you are going to get some damage tomorrow," the 23-year-old driver said.
And because both Larson and Waltrip are forced to switch to their backup cars ahead of Sunday's race, it means they are going to lose their starting positions in the qualifying races later today. The races are going to determine the starting lineup for Daytona 500.
