Chase Elliott had been cruising through the season with consistency and calm. But at Richmond Raceway, one chaotic moment changed everything. A late-race wreck triggered by Kyle Busch ended Elliott’s perfect run and lit up the NASCAR world with controversy.

The No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports driver has landed top-20 finishes in every race this season until a 26th-place stumble at Watkins Glen. His streak of avoiding DNFs was still alive, though, until Kyle Busch and a massive multi-car wreck dubbed “The Big One” changed everything.

Midway through the race on Lap 198, chaos erupted. Busch, squeezing Chase Briscoe alongside Kyle Larson, sparked a pileup that caught Brad Keselowski, Justin Haley, and others. Elliott’s No. 9 Chevrolet nearly dodged the mess, weaving through the carnage, but Busch, seemingly unaware, clipped him well past the crash site.

The contact sent the 29-year-old slamming head-on into the Turn 4 wall, ending his day in 38th and torching his shot at the regular-season title and its 15 playoff points. Elliott’s race was already on shaky ground after a strategic call to stay out on old tires in Stage 1 backfired.

A penalty for vehicle interference after pitting during the stage break cost him a potential top-10 restart, leaving him mired in traffic when the crash hit. Others felt the sting too, as Haley’s car was towed to the garage, while William Byron, the points leader, took damage from Elliott’s spin. Denny Hamlin, Erik Jones, and Cole Custer kept rolling on the lead lap despite their own scrapes.

Busch’s role in the wreck has reignited debates about his form, with some calling it a low point in a tough season. Meanwhile, Elliott’s left picking up the pieces, his perfect run now just a memory. Fans didn’t hold back, slapping Busch with the “washed” label for triggering the wreck that ended Elliott’s streak.

Fans think Busch is done

The X platform exploded with fans unloading on Kyle Busch for his role in the Richmond wreck. One summed it up, “Kyle Busch just caused like 3 different wrecks lmfao.” Busch’s No. 8 Chevrolet set off a chain reaction on Lap 198, squeezing Briscoe into Larson and sparking the pileup that collected Keselowski, Haley, and ultimately Elliott.

It’s not new for Busch, his 2022 Bristol race saw him tangle with Austin and Ty Dillon in separate incidents, leaving fans seeing a pattern of chaos in his driving.

Another fan didn’t hold back, “Kyle Busch is officially out of talent. Completely spent.” The “washed” label stings for a two-time champ (2015, 2019), but Busch’s post-2020 struggles, three wins from 2021-2022 and an inconsistent 2023, feed the narrative.

Clipping Elliott after dodging the main crash felt like a rookie mistake, echoing his winless 2020 season when fans first questioned his edge.

One user fumed, “Busch needs to be parked. There was no reason for him to cut down like that into Elliott.” Busch’s move, coming down across Elliott’s nose with space to spare, looked reckless, even if unintentional.

It’s the kind of contact that’s drawn NASCAR penalties before, like Kevin Harvick’s deliberate wreck of Ricky Rudd in 2002, though Busch escaped that fate here.

The parallels got sharper, “Just had a case of Deja vu! RCR car punts one car and hooks another in the same wreck.” Busch’s crash mirrored Austin Dillon’s 2024 Richmond wreck, where another RCR car took out multiple drivers.

“Busch’s onboard literally looked like Austin Dillon at Richmond last year but it was unintentional,” another fan noted, pointing to the eerily similar in-car footage, though Busch’s seemed like a misjudgment, not a hook.

Finally, one fan called out the irony, “A lot of veterans talk about younger drivers over aggressiveness. Both KFB & BK just drove the exact way the vets complain about. Or did they both just run out of talent?” Busch and Keselowski, grizzled champs, made moves reminiscent of the impatient “kids” they’ve criticized, like Tony Stewart’s old gripes about young drivers in the 2000s. For fans, it’s a head-scratcher that two veterans sparked such chaos.