Missed shift sparks race-halting pileup crash in Martinsville NASCAR race

Lee Pulliam was making his NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts debut on Saturday, driving the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. He was very impressive, leading some laps and restarting second inside 20 laps to go.

However, he proceeded to miss a shift from the outside of the front row, triggering a massive chain-reaction crash on the frontstretch. His teammate Carson Kvapil ran directly into the back of him, while cars started spinning across the track and collecting several others.

Almsot 20 different drivers beyond Pulliam were involved. They included Kvapil, Sam Mayer, Jeb Burton, Austin Green, Harrison Burton, Brandon Jones, Brent Crews, Josh Williams, Rajah Caruth, Anthony Alfredo, Lavar Scott, Andrew Patterson, Taylor Gray, Joey Gase, Patrick Staropoli, Austin Hill, Ryan Sieg, Parker Retzlaff, William Sawalich.

Some drivers like Kvapil had race-ending damage, while many others drove away with hardly a scratch, like Sieg.

"I know you didn't want that to happen, but don't worry about it,” team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. radioed to Pulliam. “Shit like that happens.”

Pulliam was apologetic, replying: “I hate when people do stuff like that and I hate that I was the one to do it.”

The crash essentially turned the frontstretch into a parking lot, and forced a red flag for cleanup with 16 laps to go. 

These sort of restart wrecks are not uncommon at the tight, half-mile short track. The red flag for cleanup lasted 26 minutes.

Allgaier went on to win the race, while Pulliam finished fifth in his debut. Dale Jr. embraced him afterwards.

"First off, real quick, I'd just like to apologize to everyone we tore up there," Pulliam told The CW after the checkered flag. "I just couldn't get going. It's a little bit of inexperience, but I'm just so thankful to be here and to do this ... It was a dream come true day.