Pace Car Crash Halts NASCAR Championship 4 Finale at Phoenix

On the Stage Two restart, the NASCAR Cup Series Championship race was red-flagged but not for a competitor, instead because the Pace Car lost control, crashing into the sand barrier at the entrance to the pit row.

The Toyota Camry pace car made a late attempt to turn into the pit row before the race went back to green. In doing so, it cut across the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy entry of Chase Elliott.

"Pit row was closed," Elliott joked over the radio. "He was not going to make it; it was a bit of a late decision."

The race was then red-flagged to fix the sand barrels, which are placed at the start of the pit row for potential moments like this.

Elliott appears unaffected by the move as he restarts on the front row.

Joey Logano, one of the four Championship contenders, won stage one, but an 11.8-second pitstop pushed him down the running order on the initial stage two restart. When the drivers lined up again after the pace car crash, Chase Elliott and Christopher Bell were the two drivers on the front row, chasing a bittersweet win one week after being eliminated from the playoffs.