Matt Johnson
The first stage of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway was uneventful, with commercials dominating more than anything else. Minutes into Stage 2, “The Big One” happened at Dega.
Just 17 laps into the second stage with three-wide racing at the front of the field, Ross Chastain came up into the middle of the lane. That created a stack-up with Ryan Blaney, Austin Cindric, Josh Berry and Joey Logano behind him, with that momentum pushing Bubba Wallace.
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The No. 23 car got loose from the stack-up push and turned around into the wall, where it was slammed into by Cole Custer’s No. 41 car. Custer went down and hit Daniel Suarez, who got into Logano, and the carnage took out a majority of the field.
Wallace got out of his car with race-ending damage and was taken to the infield care center where he was cleared. Speaking to FOX’s pit reporter Jamie Little, he accepted responsibility for what happened.
“We got to figure out how to get pushed better, so I take responsibility on that. We’ll have a good debrief and find out what we can do to make our Toyotas a little bit better at being pushed.”
Bubba Wallace on “The Big One” at Dega
In total, NASCAR reported Seth Eggert counted a minimum of 30 cars that were involved in the massive wreck. It, obviously, required the red flag, as the NASCAR Cup Series seemed to set a record for the biggest crash in the Modern Era.
Around 14 of the lead-lap cars escaped damage. Coming out of the wreck, the running order for the Jack Link’s 500 was Ryan Preece, Chastain, Chris Buescher, Christopher Bell, Erik Jones, Michael McDowell, Todd Gilliland, Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., AJ Allmendinger, Cody Ware, Noah Gragson, Zane Smith, and Austin Dillon, as recorded by Jeff Gluck of The Athletic.
- DNFs from Wreck: Bubba Wallace, Kyle Larson, Joey Logano, William Byron, Chad Finchum and Cole Custer
Logano, Custer, Blaney, Berry, Kyle Larson and Brad Keselowski all went to the garage with their cars requiring significant repairs. Larson’s No. 5 suffered race-ending damage, finishing last. Logano (DNF) finished in 39th, Custer (DNF) placed 38th, with Blaney (DNF) in 37th and Wallace in 36th.
William Byron’s No. 24 car had to change a bent tie rod, and it was determined that the car was beyond repair, ending his day. He finished Sunday’s race in 35th place.
While Ty Gibbs’ No. 54 car was able to race after the restart, he wrecked just a few minutes later when the front tire blew and he slammed into the wall. It was caused by the damage suffered in the initial wreck. He ended the day in 34th.
