Lap 42 - 00:33:55 - DriveTheGuard88 is going down the backstretch at a greatly reduced speed, due to the engine damage suffered from the wreck with Knelly/Crazy/Mudd a few seconds earlier. Upon entering turn 3, DriveTheGuard turns down from the far outside lane to the far inside lane to pass Crazy, who is still trying to get back up to speed himself up against the wall. DriveTheGuard pulls down right in front of a four-car freight train, resulting in a pile-up that was 100% preventable. The four cars were going 197mph entering turn 3, glued to one another, and the yellow line. DriveTheGuard was going 140mph when he pulled down right in front of the group of cars, rather than waiting for them to fly by.
As the leader of the four car group that was rapidly closing, I repeatedly announced that our group was coming by on the low side, so that this exact accident would not happen. Originally, this accident was attributed to suspension damage unloading, but that had happened 7 seconds before the accident, on the back stretch, without any resulting loss of car control. Of the six cars in the area, 2 got away mostly unscathed, while the other 4 lost significant time.
This accident should have been prevented by increased situational awareness. The four car group clearly announced their intention to cleanly pass on the inside over the voice chat. Crazy was glued up against the wall, leaving plenty of room for a safe pass. We don't require that all drivers have a headset, but all drivers need to make sure they are able to hear and understand what is said in voice chat, even if they aren't able to provide voice chat to the group. It is imperative that drivers be able to hear and understand what each other are saying, to prevent these types of accidents.
In general, we should probably also have a rule that if you have just wrecked, and are trying to get back up to speed, you need to not change lanes at all until all cars have safely passed you. Hold your line as straight as you can, and let the cars at speed find their way by without having to guess which way you are going to go.