NASCAR’s DUMBEST Moments That Turn Into TOTAL DISASTERS

From drivers forgetting basic rules to pit crews making brain-melting mistakes, these are the DUMBEST moments in NASCAR history—and somehow, each one manages to top the last.

We’re talking missed pits, fights over nothing, wrecks under caution, and even moments that left fans (and drivers) asking, “What just happened?”

and potentially is going to clear him off for turn four. They’re side by side to turn one. Taylor Gray back to the race lead. Three of the last six races at Martinsville have had a last lap pass. Sammy Smith is there. Justin Algy is there. Will there be contact? There is. There goes Gray. Here comes Ally. Austin Hill out of nowhere. It’s going to win Martinsville. Do you believe that? With a huge crash at the start finish line. This has to be one of the most embarrassing performances by an entire series. And it all led up to this chaotic final lap when Tanner Gray got turned around by Sammy Smith on the final corner at Martinsville. And if that wasn’t even crazy enough, then Ally tries to hit his teammate Sammy Smith and Austin Hill, who nobody likes, comes out of nowhere to win the race. This finish was just disastrous for NASCAR and it was completely embarrassing. totally trying to run side by side through these. I don’t know. I think he did he just lose it. I don’t know where Cody Wear came in. I saw Matty D was really close to Oh, he Oh, he pulled right up in front of him. Wow. Oh, boy. That was one of those days of thunder moments right there. That’s a dust cloud. Yeah, that was that time when you don’t want to head for the smoke. I’d like to go back and see that replay again. The 20 21 I thought was right on the back bumper of Priest when he got loose. Yeah, that’s what I’m curious is how Ryan Priest lost, you know, traction in the rear and the car came around. You going to win this race for me because it could be out of my hands. We’ve already packed the pit equipment up. It’s already in the hauler, Clint. Well, how about the opportunity? I guess you’re going to have to see who’s got tires. Yeah, about everybody has tires except as Jamie Little reported uh Tyler Reic in that a car course he’s falling all the way back. As we can see nowadays, Cody Wear easily isn’t the brightest person on the planet and behind a race car. Cody Wear decided to wreck Ryan Priest at Soma and then get involved in the wreck still somehow go off the track and then proceed to wreck Ryan Priest twice. First off, he would run in the back of him and then it’s like he blamed him and he turned right to run back into him. This is probably one of the most strangest wrecks Cody Wear has ever been a part of because he lost more brain cells than he had. It just shows how bad NASCAR is at processing drivers and letting them race week to week. Somehow Cody Wear still has a ride and is able to race anytime he wants to because he’s under the charter agreement. This is just depressing. All right, guys. He crashed off a two here. Alex Kennedy into the wall as the 23 has heavy damage on the right front. And no, what happened to Kevin Swindell? Holy cow. Good lord. That is the 23. And what happened here? Must have pulled up in front of him. Oh wow man. Oh, what a man. What a bad break for Swindale, dude. What did he do? He drove straight across the damn racetrack. Was I had the wheel cranked and everything. I was trying to go back up the track to just try and get back down to the pits and everything. um see if we can maybe salvage the car as it was and it wouldn’t turn. This has to be the most dumbest way to re-entry back on the track after you’ve been in an accident. This number 23 car probably pulled off the most dumbest thing to do behind the wheel of a NASCAR stock car under caution. Once you’re already wrecked, just get out of the way or go back to pit road or even wait for the tow truck. This guy decides, I’m going to keep on driving, but instead I’m going to pull out right in front of traffic like an idiot. Unbelievable. Oh man, we tal talked about BP, man. It’s so hard to go from 135 to 35 mph and just lost control and slid into the tire barriers. This is the most difficult pit lane to get on from the racetrack because you don’t ever have a straight shot and you’re coming off the banking trying to hustle the car on pit lane and you get on that flat and it’s real slippery right there. See all the marbles and the dirt and the rubber? When you hit that with a hot set of tires, it’s like hitting ice. Oh. And on those tires full of water, that’s quite an impact. Yes, it is. You see, you have to get you on the underside of those cones as well. And you talk about stopping. Really bad for you. Fortunes can change very quickly, can’t they, Matt? Yeah. I mean, that definitely uh fill list the dumbest thing you ever did in a race car. definitely tops that. But that’s uh Matt Kinseith has one of the most embarrassing moments of his entire career. And I would say it probably was the most embarrassing moment when he was trying to make a pit stop at Dover. He accidentally slid into these weird big tire barriers and ruined his race car. I don’t understand why these barriers were here in the first place, but unfortunately for Kenith, this would end his day and this would hurt him in the chase for winning a second championship in a second year in a row. Matt Kenzel would ultimately lose out on that opportunity and it could have been because of this moment. Exactly. When under commercial break during the 2012 Daytona 500, I don’t think anybody expect when they were brought back to the broadcast. We’re going to expect a car that was crashed under caution. I don’t think anybody would have expected what actually happened. One Pablo Mononttoya would drive under caution trying to catch up in the back of the field would break something in his race car and slam into a jet dryer spilling fuel all over the racetrack. After that, the entire entrance to turn through would be engulfed in flames. Mononttoya’s car burning as well. NASCAR would have to delay this race for several hours to do a cleanup. And shocking, they were able to actually clean this up and resume racing. This was still probably the wildest Daytona 500 in history because this happened on a Monday night that ended up running into Tuesday morning. This was just so wacky that the 2012 Speed Weeks are going to be unforgettable for the rest of our lives. having some problems getting spun around. Excuse me. Not upside down. Spun around. She was definitely upside down. You can see the damage to the roof of that of that truck. You can see Kelly moving around in the truck. Another truck also involved back up the track a little bit further. Red flag has come out. Looks like the four truck gets a little sideways. He might have made a slight bit of contact with the 10 there. With the 10 of Terry Cook. We see Kelly S probably going to come along here with nowhere to go. You see he made some hard contact with the left front of Chris Fontaine and that sent her up into the outside wall and somehow her truck got upside down. Let’s see if we can take another look at it. Watch the for truck. Kelly Sutton’s going to come along and clip her. She was out of out of control a little bit coming in there. You could see that she was just trying to recorrect when she got into that four. Yeah, she was sideways. She had lost control coming in. You can see the radiator leaking there. But you’re right. It flipped back over when it hit the apron. And if this isn’t the biggest fail and the biggest way to lose the Great American Race, I don’t know what is. Sterling Marlin with easily one of the fastest cars on that afternoon was leading the race with only a couple laps to go. But he had a little bit of damage on his right front fender after the accident that involved them going to the red flag. So, he decided to get out of his race car under the red flag, take his window net down, and walk around to the side of his race car to pull the fender out to make sure he was able to keep going to finish the race. That is something you cannot do in NASCAR. And it ended up costing him because he had to go to the back of the field and restart last on the last restart of the race and was not able to win the Daytona 500. We had a tire get loose on pit road. They brought the caution out. Yeah, they’ve had to wave the caution because a mechanic walked out halfway out to the racing surface to get it. It’s from Marcus Ambrose car. I’m going to tell you what, NASCAR is not going to be happy with that crew member at all. He was halfway across the infield grass. Thought he was seeing a good thing. We saw the tire rolling out there. You can see it’s halfway across that grass. He’s thinking it’s going to roll out in the racetrack. So, he I think he was uh obviously wasn’t thinking clearly enough to know not to do that. But still, he probably thought he was doing a good thing by retrieving it. Well, back in the 60s, photographers used to stand in that grass to shoot pictures of the race cars going around. It’s a was a long time ago. Let me tell you what this caution has done. We only have six cars on the lead lap because a lot of our guys up front like Kurt Bush. During pit stops in the 2009 Atlanta race, Kurt Bush was leading the race and trying to stay out to create this amazing pitch strategy so early on in the race. This is before stages, remember that? and somebody’s tire went loose on pit road and a pit crew member during a green flag pit stop cycle walked onto pit road with cars oncoming to grab that wheel and went into the grass. This is probably one of the most dangerous things I’ve ever seen a pit crew member do in the history of NASCAR. This is after the checkers. That was Junior who hit Kyle Larson and set that off. It looks like [Music] Oh, that was a hard lick right there for Ryan Reed. I know he’s the most popular driver ever in NASCAR, but this is probably a moment that Dale Arhart Jr. wants fans and for himself to forget. After the 2014 Infinity race at Daytona, he ended up getting into the back of a few cars, spinning them out, and causing a massive accident after the race. Funny enough, Dale Junior would actually go on to win the Daytona 500 the following day. That’s pretty ironic that this happened. One of his dumbest moments turned out to be one of his smartest moments just a day later. Going back to dumbest moments, Poly Heraca in his first ever Cup Series debut decided to wreck before he even got off pit road. That is something that’s probably never happened in a NASCAR race and probably will never happen again. Got into Alex Kennedy. Both set to make their Sprint Cup debut today. And here’s a replay of what happened. That’s just guys not paying attention. That’s all that is. 19. The white machine of Alex Kennedy. In her inaugural season in the Cup series, Danica Patrick showed how dumb she was in the racetrack, tried to wreck Landon Castle, and she ended up wrecking herself in the process. This ultimately was the demise of Danica Patrick’s race to Kansas, and put a big aster on her career at what was to come. And we’ve been talking about the race car drivers having trouble with this track. How about the pace car driver? So, we are going to assume this is Brett Bodine just because it’s fun and to me driver. Yeah, I I hadn’t seen that very often. This Saturday, NASCAR on Fox from Pocono coming right back. And now, Matt De Benadetto and Jeff Burton. Oh gosh. got turned around by a track truck. Holy smoly. I guess when you’re trying to get into your pit. The sweeper’s a weeper. Now, we’ve saw Matt Kenzith once spin into his pit and get service that way. And yeah, all says you have to be in your in your pit box. Doesn’t say which direction. Oh, that’s that’s true. The winner. I’ve never been wrecked by a record. Natalie Decker trying they’re trying to push Natalie Decker off the track after being involved in an incident and then push her onto it. I think she wanted to turn on the pit road and the record driver didn’t realize that and she was trying to hit the brakes and he was on the gas. He was on the gas. Bunch of them did but not our lead. Whoa. Car goes around in the trial. The spin sliding out of control. BJ Mloud brings out the caution. Stenhouse has wrecked on pit road with Tyler Reic. J Mloud in the 51 coming into frame here at the top. And there’s Tyler Reic. All of them in their first 500 start and moves on. Yeah. And I just wonder if Mloud was trying to to to get wed up and I think Cody wear had no idea he was coming to pit road. Bubba Wallace with a massive hit there, Steve. Yes, he did not have a good day yesterday and the bad weekend continues. The difference is we were expecting to see maybe a couple spin outs for Bubble Walls, but this is this is a KO. This will not be a uh return to the action. Says this will be a good shot right here real time. Wow. So, you know, it’s inviting and what people have told me is that if you give up a little there, it costs you all the way around NASCAR 3 and four. So, Mhm. And this is what I’ve been waiting to see is how quickly this can be repaired. Look. Oh, he just gets loose and he’s nowhere to go. Oh, wow. And that’s a moment that you’re thankful that wall is designed to move. That’s correct. Oh, man. Huge impact there. And Steve, you’ve mentioned it. That backstretch chicane is so he’s clearly a lot faster, but unless something happens, there’s just no way you could get there, I don’t think. Although Harrison is running him down the back straightaway. Will it work for him? Slow car on the bottom. Just nowhere for Harrison to go right here. He’s stuck behind the nine. He’s going to have one chance as they come out of turn four. Harrison B turns left. He goes by Noah. Harrison B’s going to win at Texas. This race probably still haunts Noah Grankson to this day. He was fixing to lock into a spot in the final four in the 2020 season. All he had to do was make two more turns at Texas. Unfortunately, he couldn’t do that. When he went to turn three and four, he just slid up the racetrack and let Haresy Burton by. Unfortunately for no Gregson, this would be it and he would not be able to win the race and he was upset, especially in his post-race interview. Just frustrated at myself. I don’t know. Um, I was I was pretty tight there at the end. I seen Alfredo holding holding Harrison off and uh and thought we were getting away and then I seen the 20 get by the 21 and he ran me down in like two two laps and I knew he was coming. Um, I just didn’t expect him to get there. Um, [ __ ] I don’t know. Or sorry. Uh, I don’t know. Um, frustrated, but I’m thankful for my guys Dave. Yeah, I’m shocked. I thought Noah had it one right here. I knew the 20 was coming, but as long as the nine stays in the groove, I didn’t think the 20 could turn below him. Obviously, the nine got too tight. Noah said he did. And and you know, as excited as I am for Harrison, for you, Jeff, for Kim, you have to be gutted for Noah. You could hear the raw emotion. And and that’s what sports and playoffs are all about. I swear as a Martin Shux Jr. fan. I could make an entire video on how he got screwed out of wins and championships because the stupidity of his pit crew or his crew chief, but unfortunately this one hurts the worst when his pit crew put the tires on backwards and it would basically end his shot at winning a championship. And this was legitimately his second best chance at ever winning a title. An issue for Martin Trex Jr. He immediately said, “Something is wrong.” And now Cole P said, “We have the tire switch.” They messed it up on pit road. It’s the right front and left front that are switched on the 19 car, so they’ve had to immediately call him back to pit road. This is a costly mistake. Tire changers. These are the mistakes that can cost you a championship. The 19 team making an extra stop on pit road. Put four tires on it. The dominant car. 98 laps led today. And here it is. You see Cole Per doing all he can do, reacting, coaching, leading, bringing his team to pit road. Nothing he can do now though, but just watch as this car loses time. Commit to running as long as they can. But these guys turn three. It’s Bubba Wallace and Eric Jones. Oh my goodness. That’s exactly what you What happened? You couldn’t do that. They were single file. The air cleaner is completely off of Eric Jones’s car. Now, this is the group, the Toyota group, guys. They were single file driving off as Kevin was talking about getting into turn three. What in the world? Denny Hamlin is in it down in the apron. Well, see him move up the 23 actually gets into and Jones and then they start moving around, stacking them up. I’m sorry to interrupt you, but what we were talking about earlier over that tunnel, you see the back of those cars moving around. Look at that. See the back of the cars moving around and as they’re moving around they come down and they’re all they’re all connected in a in a they’re not lined up I guess is the best way to put it. It just gets them out of whack. Now Denny Hamlin was to the inside. Somebody must have slid down into him off the banking. That is a good plan gone wrong. This has to be the most embarrassing moment for a manufacturer in NASCAR period. All the Toyotas were lined up going to run down the big pack at Tallaladega and effectively take the lead and potentially all be up there at the finish to win the race. Ultimately, almost all of the Toyota cars would end up being wrecked in the same wreck. All because they were too impatient and were too aggressive on their pushing and ultimately it costed so many of them a great finishing position. Was a really, really slow start. That could have been one of those starts that just turned people down in turn right there like that. Just like that, man. Just exactly like that. Watching the flag stand. Still under green. No harm, no foul because he’s far enough out of the