DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Justin Fontaine was transported to a local hospital after a wild crash on Saturday that cut the season-opening ARCA Racing Series event at Daytona Int’l Speedway five laps short of its scheduled distance.
Fontaine ended the race upside down after contact between Kaz Grala and Clint King sent King up the track in the tri-oval, where both Codie Rohrbaugh and Bobby Gerhart were collected as a multi-car melee ensued.
The Fletcher, N.C. native was left with nowhere to go as Rohrbaugh shot up the race track into his No. 33 Win-Tron Racing entry, with the car pushed onto its side and sliding halfway down the frontstretch before coming to rest on its roof.
Safety workers were quickly on the scene to check that Fontaine was okay, before the car was gently turned back over with a set of wrap-around straps and winch from the back of one of the track wreckers. Though Fontaine was moving and alert inside the car, the roof was cut off the car before he was extricated and subsequently transported off-site to Halifax Health Medical Center.
Damage to the SAFER Barrier as a result of the crash forced ARCA officials to call the race complete with five laps remaining. Austin Theriault won for Ken Schrader Racing.
The Daytona Beach News-Journal’s NASCAR Twitter account reported an update on Fontaine roughly an hour after the conclusion of Saturday’s race.
Halifax Health Medical Center says Justin Fontaine is in stable condition in the emergency room.
— NASCAR Daytona (@nascardaytona) February 19, 2017
Before the race-ending crash, a second incident marred the action on Saturday — the ‘Big One’ collecting a myriad of cars with 31 laps to go.
Mark Thompson got hit from behind by Justin Fontaine in the tri-oval and spun down into Gus Dean, sending Dean up into traffic and sparking a multi-car melee that also collected the likes of A.J. Fike, Eric Caudell, David LeBeau, Michael Lira and Caesar Bacarella before all was said and done.
All drivers involved were able to walk away, but it was Dean who took the hardest blows, receiving heavy damage to the front and rear of his No. 32 Win-Tron Racing entry before coming to rest against the inside wall at pit exit.
“I tried to hang back as hard as I could … as late as I could in the race to try to avoid (exactly) what happened there,” Dean said after coming out of the infield care center. “We were making progress on the bottom lane, but someone got hit through the tri-oval there on the top side. I never really saw it, just got clipped in the rear. It actually felt like the wreck we had last year where we wrecked out on the third lap. It’s tough, but hopefully we can come back from this and make a good run of it in the rest of our races this season.”
Lira also weathered an exceptionally hard hit, trying to duck to the bottom of the runoff area to avoid the carnage but instead slamming into the sliding car of Thompson as it came to rest.
“I was just in the back, doing the normal thing … not lifting, of course … and I saw the 32 (Dean) come across and thought to myself, ‘Okay, I’m good; I’m on the bottom and the wreck’s going to sweep up to the top.’ I got around the 32 and then the 66 (of Thompson) was right there, like a wall. I couldn’t miss him.”
“It sucks for everyone at Josh Williams Motorsports and Lira Motorsports. I think we had a really good run going.”
About the Writer
Jacob Seelman is the Managing Editor of Race Chaser Online and creator of the Motorsports Madness radio show, airing at 7 p.m. Eastern every Monday on the Performance Motorsports Network.
Seelman grew up in the sport, watching his grandparents co-own the RaDiUs Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series team in the 1990s.
The 22-year-old is currently studying Broadcast Journalism at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., and is also serving as the full-time tour announcer for the Must See Racing Sprint Car Series.
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