If you were thinking about dozing off going into Saturday night’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Kansas Lottery 300, your eyes are likely now wide-open. Carson Kvapil, the fifth-place driver in the championship standings heading into the day and the driver who started from the pole after qualifying was washed out on Friday, went for a wild tumble down the backstretch on the second lap of the race.
As Josh Bilicki, and Luke Baldwin made contact back in the pack and Bilicki began a Turn 2 spin, more calamity was unfolding at the front of the field.
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As Kvapil was charging off Turn 2, William Byron, a full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver and Kvapil’s JR Motorsports teammate, made contact with the rear of his No. 1 Chevrolet on the exit of the turn, which caused Kvapil’s car to veer out of control toward the outside wall on the backstretch.
With it being the second lap of the race, the field was still very much bunched up, and as Kvapil went into the outside wall, he collected Parker Retzlaff, who had nowhere to go in his No. 99 Viking Motorsports Chevrolet.
The contact from Retzlaff provided the liftoff that Kvapil’s car needed to get airborne. What ensued was a terrifying barrel-roll down the backstretch, which took Kvapil from the high lane at the beginning of the backstretch to the apron at the entrance of Turn 3.
“All in all, it was one heck of a ride,” Kvapil admitted after exiting the infield care center. “I was not ready for that.”
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Kvapil’s car came to a stop on its roof, and it took several minutes for safety workers to gently turn the car back onto its wheels so Kvapil could exit the vehicle. Kvapil was able to climb from the car, and walked into the ambulance under his own power.
While the crash was spectacular to watch, Kvapil said once the car went into the air, he didn’t experience any major impacts.
“Not too fun. I actually didn’t think it was going to flip over like that. But once it started doing that, it didn’t really seem too bad,” Kvapil explained.
It was a sad end to what felt like a promising shot at Kvapil’s first career O’Reilly Auto Parts Series win, but Kvapil couldn’t get too wrapped up in that thought. He was more concerned with the torn up car that his No. 1 team worked hard to build for the race.
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“My biggest thing is I just hate it for this whole No. 1 Bass Pro Shops team. [Crew chief] Rodney [Childers], these guys, they brought a really fast race car. Was just hoping to get through the first couple of laps, and kind of sort it out, and kind of follow Ryan, right? We didn’t really get to that point.”
After starting first, the driver of the No. 1 car completed just one lap on the night, and will be credited with a last-place finish. As a result, his ranking within the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase Grid is expected to take a massive hit.
The same could be said for Retzlaff, who also had to exit the race due to the crash. Retzlaff, who has been punching above his weight behind the wheel of the No. 99 Viking Motorsports Chevrolet this season, was ninth in the standings entering the Kansas Lottery 300.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/onsi/racing-america as Carson Kvapil OK, Calls Kansas Flip ‘One Heck Of A Ride’.
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