What caused the massive Texas wreck that swallowed 11 NASCAR machines in chaos?

A patch of infield grass helped trigger a massive 11-car crash during Saturday's NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. The wreck happened at the start of Stage 3 on Lap 97 of the Andy’s Frozen Custard 300, sending cars spinning and slamming into one another.

Wet conditions from a rain earlier on Friday made the grass even more dangerous, turning it into mud that wrecked cars as soon as they dipped their wheels into it. The crash started when the #19 of Riley Herbst got into the back of the #17 of Corey Day. That pushed Day into the #54 of Taylor Gray, and soon, the situation turned into a multi-car wreck.

As drivers tried to avoid the wreck, the #1 of Carson Kvapil and the #26 of Dean Thompson slid into the grass in the dog leg. Then the #11 of Josh Williams clipped the wet grass and slid back across the track. That move blocked the path of the #42 of Anthony Alfredo and collected more cars behind them.

By the end of the crash, 11 cars were damaged. Those included the #14 of Garrett Smithley, #70 of Leland Honeyman, #32 of Katherine Legge, #07 of Nick Leitz, and #45 of Mason Massey.

Many of these drivers had no time to react and simply got caught in the pileup. However, this wasn’t the first time the grass caused problems over the weekend. A similar incident happened during the Truck Series race the night before.

Despite the chaos, Kyle Larson once again came out on top. Filling in for Connor Zilisch in the #88 JR Motorsports car, Larson made a bold outside-lane move during the second overtime restart to win the race. It was his second win in just three NASCAR Xfinity starts this season. Taylor Gray, who was part of the early crash but managed to survive, scored a career-best second place. Riley Herbst, Austin Hill, and Sam Mayer rounded out the top five.

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Josh Williams wants NASCAR to get rid of the grass at Texas

The No. 11 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet of Josh Williams was one of the cars that got taken out of the race by the Stage 3 restart incident. Drivers have called out the infield grass at Texas Motor Speedway for being unsafe before, especially when it's wet, and this time, Williams has urged NASCAR to get rid of it completely.

Speaking to the media after being released from the infield NASCAR medical facility, Williams shared (via Frontstretch):

"Yeah, I mean, we’re all so close, and a couple of guys in front of me were deeper in the grass than I was. I don’t know, we caught the short end of it, and just unfortunate. I hate it."

When asked for a solution to this infield grass problem, Williams added:

"It’d be nice if it was paved. I don’t know. I’ve seen so many people do it, we even talked about it before the race even started. So, unfortunately, I was that guy."

Josh Williams currently sits in the 22nd spot in the NASCAR Xfinity drivers' standings with 207 points to his name (trails the leader by 263 points). The Xfinity Series is going on a two-week break and will return on Saturday, May 24, for the BetMGM 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.