John Hunter Nemechek has taken responsibility for the incident that saw Zane Smith end up in a scary and violent crash at the Kansas Speedway in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs race.
Smith was bumped into the wall for several hundred feet by Nemechek on lap 267 on the restart, with footage showing just how scary the crash had been from inside the vehicle.
Thankfully, Smith did not look to sustain any injuries from the crash, but was wiped out of the race along with Nemechek with the Legacy Motor Club driver publicly apologizing. It had been a race filled with drama, seeing Denny Hamlin lose out on winning in devastating fashion with Chase Elliott claiming first place.
He tweeted: “my fault. made a mistake trying to make a move to go 3 wide into turn 3. apologies to the 38 guys and zane. hate the way it ended. a decent day but nothing to show for it.”
Watch the insane footage from inside Smith’s 38 vehicle below.
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Both Josh Berry and Ty Gibbs were also caught in the heap after the incident, which had infuriated the drivers.
Smith was able to exit his vehicle after being tended to by officials, while the race was stopped for nearly 9 minutes under a red flag to clear the wreckage.
After the race, he said: “It was a wild ride, no doubt. Before I knew it, I had a decent restart going, and I just get wrecked by (Nemechek).
“He just drives through me, and then I was sliding on the wall. I was just mad at that point from how our day was going, and this just pissed me off even more because that’s what really hurt was just flipping down the track.
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“It was violent, no doubt, but we had such a fast Ford today. It’s just a bummer. Right before that caution came out, we were going to have a top 10 day, racing up inside the top 10 a majority of the day, and it’s a shame that it has to come to an end out there.
“I want to give a shout-out back to everyone at FRM for bringing another really good car, especially at a mile-and-a-half. Five more (races), hopefully we bring some more good ones.”