Helio Castroneves caught up in brutal Chandler Smith wreck during Daytona 500 Duel
The first big wreck of the Daytona 500 week. Chandler Smith slammed into the wall and collected Helio Castroneves in the process. A full moon over tonight’s NASCAR festivities and things are getting spooky already for a few teams.
Helio Castroneves will have to use his Open Exemption Provisional. This means that we are going to have 41 cars in the field for the Daytona 500.
Smith hit the wall hard. Castroneves was involved. Justin Haley was also in this wreck. All three are out of the Duel race. We are just getting started tonight, folks.
For Helio Castroneves and Chandler Smith, this is awful. Smith and his Garage 66 team will not advance to the Daytona 500. Remember that No. 66 car is the entry that Mike Wallace was supposed to race before being denied by NASCAR.
Helio’s misfortune is a bonus for Justin Allgaier. He now holds his fate in his hands. Martin Truex Jr. is already locked into the Daytona 500 on speed, as it runs, Allgaier would advance as the next best open car in this Duel race. JJ Yeley might have something to say about that, though.
These Duel races mean so much more this year. With nine open cars and four facing elimination tonight, everyone is racing for every inch that they can get.
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Helio Castroneves should not have qualified for Daytona 500
If this were any other year, we would be talking about Helio Castroneves failing to advance to the Daytona 500. However, his Open Exemption Provisional gives him an extra 41st starting spot for Sunday’s race. He will not earn points or prize money in the race, though.
Trackhouse Racing was smart to get the provisional. But I can’t help but feel like this is an asterisk of a performance. Even if he has a great race on Sunday, there will always be that nagging feeling about how he got into the field to begin with.
For NASCAR, this makes your provisional look necessary in a way. This is the exact reason why they wanted to grant this exemption to Helio, or any other big name from outside of the sport. Now they get to see it put to use.
Helio Castroneves is going to race on Sunday. Don’t worry about that. But there will be people out there who question the legitimacy of his appearance in the race and his performance, whatever it may be.