NASCAR Cup Series Race Red Flagged After Pace Car Crashes Into A Barrel While Trying To Turn Onto Pit Road

We've seen a lot this NASCAR season, but I don't think I've EVER seen that one. The NASCAR Cup Series wraps up their season today at Phoenix Raceway, where the final four are competing for a championship as the rest of the field hopes to get a win to round out their season. It's been a weird season already, from Austin Dillon getting removed from the playoffs after wrecking two drivers en route to a win at Richmond to Kyle Larson missing the Coca-Cola 600 after attempting to run the rain-delayed Indy 500 on the same day. And it all comes down to today's NASCAR Cup Series Championship race at Phoenix, with the highest finishing driver in the final four winning the championship. The final four drivers of Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, William Byron and Tyler Reddick were no doubt hoping for a clean, uneventful race as they fight for the championship trophy. But that went out the window only three laps into the race when Ty Gibbs suffered a hard crash and brought out an early caution. https://twitter.com/NASCARonTSN/status/1855712413586186609 The race went caution-free the rest of the first stage, with championship contender Joey Logano dominating in the early stages of the race. But Logano's #22 pit crew had a slow stop at the stage break, putting him back in 6th place and behind fellow final four driver William Byron. Then, as the field was getting ready to go back to racing, the restart had to be waved off after a bizarre incident coming to the green flag. As the pace car driver peeled off the track to head to pit road, he turned to the left a little too late - and ended up taking out a barrel filled with sand at the end of pit road. https://twitter.com/JettMDK/status/1855722247220080685 The barrels are at the pit road entrance to protect drivers from running into the end of the pit wall in the event of a crash. But when they get taken out and spill sand all over the place, it requires quite a bit of cleanup...and some equipment to move the heavy barrels back into place. NASCAR red flagged the race and stopped the cars on the track while they cleaned up the mess at the pit road entrance. And they also had to swap pace cars after the original one was damaged in the incident. Yes, there's a backup pace car. https://twitter.com/NASCARonTSN/status/1855722786292941255 While Michael Phelps was the honorary pace car driver at today's race, the pace car is driven by a NASCAR official after the green flag of the race - although everybody was wondering whether he decided to just stay behind the wheel. https://twitter.com/MattWeaverRA/status/1855723382609936510 It's not the first time in NASCAR history that we've seen a caution for the pace car. Last year at Martinsville, a pace car broke down under caution and had to be towed back to pit road. https://twitter.com/Skewcar/status/1718729749214736634 A pace car also caught on fire back in 2014 during a race at Daytona, and back in 1986 a fan even stole the pace car and took it for a joyride around Talladega before a race. https://twitter.com/NASCARMemories/status/897582087636750336 But I have to say, this is the first time that I can remember when the pace car crashed into a barrel. You never know what you're going to see in NASCAR.