Kurt Busch crashes out early in Advance Auto Parts Clash

With no points on the line, it didn’t take too long for calamity to strike in Sunday’s Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona International Speedway.

The 17 drivers in the first race of the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season knew the 75-lap Clash was strictly an exhibition race, which means for some it was checkers or wreckers.

On Lap 18, Jimmie Johnson got loose coming out of Turn 4, with the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet tagging the right rear of Kurt Busch’s No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, sending the SHR car hard, nose-first into the outside wall.

It was the sixth consecutive poor Clash finish for Johnson and…