The largest crash in NASCAR Cup Series history happened Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway and collected seven championship contenders in the process.
Austin Cindric was leading the YellaWood 500 off Turn 2 when an accordion effect down the backstretch ended with his bumper being tagged by Brad Keselowski. Cindric, the leader of the inside lane, bounced off Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who was leading the outside lane, from the initial contact and then spun in front of the field.
IT’S NOT JUST A BIG ONE. IT’S THE HUGE ONE!
Nearly the entire field involved in this crash at Talladega! #NASCAR
đź“ş : NBC pic.twitter.com/poJkMCPuIn
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) October 6, 2024
NASCAR listed a total of 27 cars involved in the crash, which is the most all-time in the Cup Series. It resulted in a red flag of nearly nine minutes.
“When we had to pass the [No.] 38 car in (Turns) 1 and 2, it stretched the whole bottom lane out,” Keselowski said of how the wreck started. “The bottom had to move to the middle, the middle had to move to the top, and it just broke everybody up. It was a giant rubber band and the rubber band snapped back.”
The playoff drivers involved in the wreck were Cindric, Tyler Reddick, Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, Joey Logano, Chase Briscoe and Daniel Suarez. Cindric and Logano failed to finish the race.
“I just got turned at the front of the field,” Cindric said. “Unfortunately that’s how Daytona ended for us and I think what that says is we’ve got really fast race cars and great execution. As the leader, I was trying to be as predictable as possible as far as taking pushes and it’s just a real shame. I don’t really feel like doing a whole lot of complaining about what happened or whose fault it is; it doesn’t really matter.
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“It puts us in a must-win situation for the Charlotte road course. We’ve brought some exceptionally fast race cars every single race of the playoffs, and I cannot understate how proud I am of my race team and we’ll have to bring another one next week.”
Cindric is 29 points out of a transfer spot into the next round of the playoffs going into the final elimination race of the round. He entered the weekend in the same position.
Logano was pushed out of a transfer spot because of the wreck. The two-time series champion is now 13 points below the cutline.
“Everyone just gets more aggressive at the end of the races,” Logano said. “The [No.] 2 got out there a little bit more than what he had been and the [No.] 21 gave me a shove and transferred that to the [No.] 6. You can’t see what’s in front of you from there, and he got to the [No.] 2 with a fair amount of steam there.
“It’s nobody’s fault. It’s not Brad’s fault. It’s not anybody’s fault. It’s just the product of the racing that we’ve got. Everyone is getting more and more aggressive as the laps wind down and it happens. It happens a lot.”
Cindric finished 32nd and Logano finished 33rd.
Bowman was the highest-finishing playoff driver of those involved in the wreck in 16th place. Reddick finished 20th, Suarez was 26th, Elliott was 29th and Briscoe finished 30th.
The four drivers below the cutline going to Charlotte are Logano, Suarez, Cindric and Briscoe. Logano was the only driver who fell below the cutline who was in a transfer spot at the start of Sunday afternoon.