Austin Dillon takes hard hit in restart crash at Charlotte

CONCORD, N.C. -- A wreck on a restart with 75 laps to go took out two Chase for the Sprint Cup contenders during Sunday's Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Austin Dillon, who was restarting second, got hit from behind by Martin Truex Jr. as the driver tried to push him. As Dillon spun out of the pack and into the inside wall, Chase Elliott was hit from behind by Kyle Busch and was turned in front of the field. At least a half-dozen other cars piled in, which caused NASCAR to display the red flag.

Dillon's No. 3 Chevrolet slid off the racing surface across a patch of grass and slammed hard into an inside wall before coming back on the track. His team had opted for two tires while the rest that had pitted took four.

"I felt like I got to third gear pretty clean and next thing I felt contact and I was spinning through the grass. We only took two tires there, so you know the risk but you hope that that doesn't happen," Dillon said after being checked and released from the infield care center.

Those drivers weren't the only playoff contenders to have trouble on Sunday. Joey Logano hit the wall after a tire rub earlier in the race and Kevin Harvick lost his engine power, which relegated him to a 38th-place finish.