What caused the restart pileup that collected eleven cars at Kansas?

With just over 50 laps to go in the scheduled distance, the sixth caution of the race flew just seconds into a restart. 

NASCAR officially listed eleven cars as part of the incident: Ross Chastain, Austin Cindric, Austin Dillon, Noah Gragson, Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney, AJ Allmendinger, Joey Logano, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ty Gibbs, and Carson Hocevar.

The incident essentially forced Cindric into a must-win situation and cost Logano valuable points as his car was never the same afterwards. 

“It was a hard weekend,” said Logano. “I thought we were recovering pretty well scoring stage points in both stages after starting in the back. I’m like, ‘Alright, we’re OK here. We can kind of roll through here and we’ll be alright,’ and I just got caught up in that wreck on the restart and tore something up. I don’t know, but it wouldn’t turn after that. We tried to throw a Hail Mary with two tires, but there were too many restarts and you can’t hold them off. I kept getting used up, so it sucks.” 

Cindric described it as “a cheap wreck,” but what exactly happened?

Breaking down every part of the crash

Just outside the top ten, the field began to fan out, and Noah Gragson was already getting put three-wide by Erik Jones, and thought he saw an opening between the Penske drivers. As he moved up the track to get alongside Cindric, he ended up making contact Stenhouse’s left-front and then the door of Logano’s car.

From that point onward, the wreck was on. Gragson ricocheted off the No. 22 and hooked Cindric up the track. Gragson’s spinning then collided with Stenhouse while Logano did everything he could to hang on. The car fishtailed, and he finally spun around as Busch bumped into him. 

If one were to place blame for what was essentially a classic restart pileup, it would have to be on Gragson for trying to force his way into a hole that quickly closed up around him.

However, the most overlooked aspect of this wreck was that there were actually two completely separate incidents unfolding. About two rows ahead of the main melee, Chastian and Hocevar bumped wheels. There was smoke as Hocevar’s car wiggled up the track and spun after getting his from behind by Blaney.

“Thanks Ross,” radioed Hocevar. 

The other part of this chaotic wreck involved Stenhouse, who spun down at the entry of Turn 1 after getting collected by Gragson. He clipped Allmendinger in the right-rear before getting broadsided by A. Dillon.

Allmendinger’s car crossed the banking nosed into the outside wall, ending his day. Gibbs was the latest arrival to the incident, as he made slight contact with Allmendinger as the destroyed Kaulig Racing car slid back down the hill and onto the apron.

Surprisingly, Allmendinger was the only driver to actually fail to finish and record a DNF due to this incident.