Brad Keselowski gives ill-timed push, triggers massive wreck on Lap 6 of Daytona 500

Just a few laps into the NASCAR Daytona 500, as the field went three wide, Brad Keselowski gave an off-center push to John Hunter Nemechek and, boom! Nemechek came down on Harrison Burton, who then caught Carson Hocevar in the mess.

Before you knew it, there were a handful of cars involved, Ryan Preece was among those in the incident. It caused an issue in the back of the pack. Austin Dillon and Kaz Grala were also involved. Jimmie Johnson caught a little contact as well.

Brad Keselowski made one bad push and now Burton is a DNF and Hocevar is done early as well.

Early trouble. Harrison Burton takes a big hit. #NASCAR #DAYTONA500 pic.twitter.com/AkfbtBYNe8

— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) February 19, 2024

Once Nemechek got off-center, it was over from there. He came down, Burton was there, bounced off him and then it was over. Once Hocevar was involved, Dillon and Grala caught their share and so did Johnson.

Early on in this one, Burton, Grala, and Hocevar are all out of the race. Dillon could find himself out of the race as well.

Brad Keselowski too aggressive too soon?

If I was a driver at the end of the Daytona 500, Brad Keselowski is one of the drivers I would want to line up behind me. He is one of the best pushers in the game, and it has treated him well in his superspeedway career, at least at Talladega.

However, there ar times, early in races and in the middle of them, when he gets too aggressive. That could have been the issue here. Keselowski was trying to get too much too soon and it ended up costing other drivers.

This is the Daytona 500, though. That means you have to give it all the entire time. Still, after seeing those early and frequent wrecks in the Truck Series and ARCA races this weekend, this doesn’t bode well for the Cup Series.

Early leaders are Christopher Bell, winner of the second Duel on Thursday night, and Ryan Blaney. Blaney leads in his backup car, remember he was wrecked in his duel race.