DAYTONA BEACH, Fla – Recent history shows that we were due for a big crash in Sunday’s 61st annual Daytona 500. In last year’s race, 31 of the 40 cars were heavily damaged in crashes. In the 2017 edition, 34 of the 40 were involved in accidents.

Last July, another 34 cars were left on the hook of a tow truck.

So, when we reached 11 laps left in regulation of Sunday’s race at the Daytona International Speedway, it was shocking that only nine had any damage. In fact, the only crashes we had were a six car dust up in Turn 2 on Lap 49 which only left Kurt Busch, Darrell Wallace Jr. and Jamie McMurray with any damage.

Then, on Lap 106, Parker Kligerman and Casey Mears crashes into one another in Turn 1. After that, a bizarre Lap 158 crash occurred at pit entry when teammates BJ McLeod and Cody Ware made contact heading into pit lane and saw them hit Tyler Reddick and Jimmie Johnson as a result.

At that point, that was it.

189 laps down, just three crashes and a Kyle Larson spin.

Then came the “Big One.” It was big too.

18 cars in all were involved when Paul Menard made a mistake and got into the back of Matt DiBenedetto entering Turn 3 on Lap 190. That started a chain reaction crash that took out several contenders.

DiBenedetto had led the most laps of the race (49) and Menard had an extremely fast race car. Defending Daytona 500 champion Austin Dillon was collected as what the driver he wrecked to win last year Aric Almirola. His No. 10 Ford got airborne and on top of David Ragan’s at the top of the banking. Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, Martin Truex Jr., Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Daniel Suarez, Jimmie Johnson and others were involved.

For whatever reason, Turn 3 got everyone again.

Last year, there was a nine car crash on Lap 60 in Turn 3. Then, on Lap 97, we saw another seven car crash. In 2017, there was a five car crash in Turn 3on Lap 105. On Lap 127 of that year, we saw a 14 car accident.

In last year’s Coke Zero Sugar 400, there was a 28 car crash in Turn 3 on Lap 55.

Turn 3 is the turn that creates mayhem.