Break of the Race: The 'Big One'

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Restrictor-plate wrecks are just like recent tax deadlines: they’re inescapable. And in NASCAR’s world, they’re the show within a show.

The 24-car pileup on lap 164 of Sunday’s Aaron’s 499 wasn’t quite the mayhem of Saturday’s Busch race, when 27 cars were junked, but it was devastating enough. Collected in the debris were both back-markers and former leaders, and the destruction eliminated several drivers’ chances at top-10 or top-five finishes.

"The further the race goes, the more chances to wreck happen because people say, ‘Okay, I’ve got to get going now,’" said Michael Waltrip, who finished second behind Dale Earnhardt, Inc., teammate Dale Earnhardt, Jr. "I don’t choose to blame Talladega or the plate. It’s the decisions that we make that cause the wrecks and I don’t know what happened."

Mike Wallace and Tony Stewart had the best view. Wallace nicked Stewart’s left side coming off Turn 2 of the 2 1/2-mile Talladega Superspeedway, nudging Stewart against the outside wall. Their contact sparked the usual chain-reaction accident.

"I was trying to go in a hole," Wallace said. "I kind of checked up a little bit. I don’t really know what happened. I’d really have to see it on tape."

His view would be one of smoke clouds, spinning cars, and crunching sheet metal. Once debris settled and window nets were lowered, former race leaders like Mark Martin (five laps), Matt Kenseth (18 laps), and Jeremy Mayfield (two laps) were out of contention. All three returned to the track - Martin caused the final caution by stalling in the backstretch on lap 180 -- but any shot at the top was gone.

"That kind of thing happens here," Mayfield said.

"I didn’t really see anything," said Elliott Sadler, who ran as high as third before the wreck. "I just looked in the rear-view mirror and I saw the 33 [Wallace] sideways. I don’t know what happened. And then all of a sudden, somebody clipped me in my left rear and sent me head-on to the wall."

Bobby Labonte, who was involved in last fall’s last-lap "big one" at Talladega, was another driver in the wrong place at the wrong time. His Pontiac was clipped by Kevin Harvick’s spinning Chevrolet, and although he made it through the first wave of crashes, Labonte’s day ended after he and Mayfield collided.

"You can’t help it," said Labonte, who finished 41st. "When something like that happens, everybody is so close. I guess one good thing about it is everybody is going the same speed, so when they hit, they really don’t hit that hard."

Meanwhile, the leaders escaped, another testimonial for staying up front on restrictor-plate tracks.

"We drove right through the big wreck," said Ricky Rudd, who finished 14th. "I was down on the grass and hurt the valence, but nothing too serious there."

"I saw the smoke in my mirror and I didn’t hear the spotter saying anything," said rookie Jimmie Johnson, the pole-sitter who finished seventh. "And then I looked back and there was no one any more."

"We were doing a good job," said Wallace. "Something stacked up in front of us. I’m sorry we were involved in it and all the other cars were also."