NASCAR championship race briefly stopped after pace car crashes into sand barrels

NASCAR’s Cup Series championship race at Phoenix was red-flagged on lap 69 because of a not-so-nice incident involving the pace car.

As the pace car led the field to green for a restart after the first stage break, it waited a bit too long to duck onto pit road. And as it bailed toward pit road it careened into the sand barrels that protect the end of the pit road wall.

Seriously. We are not making this up. Take a look for yourself.

The pace car largely avoided major damage save for a dent on the back right side of the car. The barrels were not so lucky. The race had to be stopped so track workers could put the barrels back in place and clean up the sand that had scattered all over the track at the entrance to pit road.

Chase Elliott was scored as the leader ahead of Christopher Bell at the time of the red flag. All four drivers competing for the championship were running in the top 10 at the time of the red flag. William Byron led them in third, Ryan Blaney was in fourth, Joey Logano was in sixth and Tyler Reddick was in seventh.

Thankfully, the delay lasted less than 10 minutes and the race was able to get restarted as the pace car made it to pit road safely.