Stenhouse triggers race-stopping crash at Watkins Glen

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got loose coming through carousel and ended up triggering a violent four-car wreck.

With 36 of 90 laps remaining in Sunday’s Cheeze-It 355 at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International, Stenhouse drove over the curbs, got loose and turn sharply right and into the Armco barrier.

“We were just hustling hard on that restart and got loose over the curb and just kind of spun. From that point we were just along for the ride. It looked like everybody scattered and it was probably pretty hard to see. We got hit pretty hard," Stenhouse said.

"The guys had a fast car. We had some issues yesterday in qualifying that put us toward the back and we were fighting all day to get back up there. We had done that at one point then messed up in the pits and got blocked in. We were trying to get that position back and made a lot of passes that first lap. We were hustling the car and just got loose.”

The impact sent his No. 17 Ford bouncing back onto the track, where Jimmie Johnson, Austin Dillon and Greg Biffle were among those who suffered the most damage.

Johnson said his bad day started early when he received a speeding penalty on pit road and his pit crew was penalized for an uncontrolled tire.

"We had a rough first pit stop and then we were just kind of biding our time and trying to get on a fuel strategy that could benefit us. The cars started checking up in front of me and they all moved out of the way and (Stenhouse) was sitting there, stopped," he said.

"I remember seeing a door number and I was so thankful it was the passenger-side door and not the driver-side door because I plowed him. I really hit the car hard. I was afraid that I might have injured him. But, thankfully he’s okay and everybody is all right."

If so, it would mark the fourth time in the last nine races, the No. 48 has failed to finish the race.

The track was red-flagged for over 13 minutes to clean it of debris.