#19-Martin Truex, Jr. and #41-Cole Custer were involved in an accident on lap 26 of the Echopark Texas Grand Prix NASCAR Cup Series race at Circuit of the America.
Truex ran into the rear of #34-McDowell. Custer did not see Truex slow and drove under the #19. Custer’s car caught fire, but he was able to get out quickly.
Both drivers were evaluated and released from the infield care center.
A huge and frightening hit for Cole Custer and Martin Truex Jr. at Circuit of The Americas. pic.twitter.com/dGmCoXQPx6
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) May 23, 2021
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing:
What did you feel and see in the accident?
“I don‘t know, I couldn‘t see anything. Going down the backstretch just trying to stay on the road and next thing I know, I saw a taillight and it was on my hood in a split second. You just can‘t see anything out there. It‘s a shame for everyone that works so hard on these cars and Bass Pro Shops, Tracker and everybody. We got in a bad spot with oil on our windshield. Couldn‘t see, had to pit and get a tear-off and then getting in the back there. I don‘t know what happened up ahead. If there was a car sitting in the track or slow or what was happening. You can‘t see. Just wide open in third gear and next thing there‘s a car on my hood, it‘s not a good feeling. I‘m trying to stay in the gas and keep going. I want to get out of that area and through the braking zone because I knew I was going to get hit again and the next thing I knew, I got hit so hard that I was 10-feet in the air. I don‘t know. Just wild. Hopefully, everybody else is okay, that‘s the most important thing. Just a mess, you can‘t see anything.”
How would you describe the racing and that moment of impact?
“Well, I mean, the only way to describe it is you can’t see anything so I mean it’s, you just mash the gas and going through the gears on the backstretch praying that nobody’s going to be there and all of a sudden I seen the tail light flash, and I was already in through him. It happens that fast when you‘re going that fast and then my thought was that once I hit that guy , I need to try to keep going because I knew they were coming from behind, and literally next thing I know, again, I get drilled so I mean, there’s just nothing you can do in those situations. A shame for Bass Pro and Tracker and all our guys and girls are working on these things. Sorry, we got behind there just. We got a little oil windshield at some point there and I literally couldn’t see anything and I had to pit and we got off sequence in the back there and then it’s you know it’s really, really hard to see back there so it’s I don’t know it’s hard, it’s really hard to race like that if you’re not in the top, you know couple cars and we’re not sure how we can make it easier or better but, man, it’s dangerous and you just get on the backstretch every lap praying there’s nobody having an issue you know you‘re praying there’s not going to be a crash or a car stuck or whatever because you’re just wide open and can’t see anything. Just wrong place, wrong time.”
— Toyota Racing —
COLE CUSTER, No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang — “I‘m all good. It didn‘t hurt as much as I thought it was gonna be, but it‘s just that you can‘t see anything. It‘s pretty bad. I mean, you can‘t see a foot in front of your car. I was just rolling down the backstretch. You can‘t see anything. I‘m just so frustrated about having our day end like this. It killed the car and it‘s just really frustrating. It‘s not fair to all our guys and everybody at Haas Tooling.com and everybody at SHR, so it‘s just you can‘t see anything.”
“You just can‘t see anything on that backstretch. I think the same thing happened to us at the same time, somebody was going slower and by the time you want to slow down, they‘re in your front bumper so there‘s no chance of you even missing it. It‘s just so frustrating. We just wanted a good run and it‘s just not fair to all our guys and everybody at SHR to have a destroyed race car for really no good reason. It‘s frustrating, but we‘ll move on to the next one.”
— Ford Performance —
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