FORT WORTH, Texas -- Superspeedway carnage came to the Sprint Cup Series a weekend early, as a nine-car crash with just under 20 laps to go Monday at Texas Motor Speedway drastically affected the outcome of the Samsung Mobile 500.

Not only were the cars of dominant lap leader Jeff Gordon, pole sitter Tony Stewart and three-time Texas winner Carl Edwards eliminated on the spot, but the aftermath also robbed possible top-five finishes from Edwards' Roush Fenway Racing teammates Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth.

“

It was my fault. Feel bad about it, about doing something stupid like that. I didn't plan on getting loose, but it is 100 percent my fault.

”

-- TONY STEWART

Ironically, all three men took some portion of the blame for a spot of hard racing that occurred after a restart with 18 laps remaining and the cars at the front on a variety of tire strategies.

Stewart had started second, behind leader Jeff Burton and was on two fresh tires. Gordon restarted eighth, outside Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson, with Edwards behind him and also on four new tires.

On the first full lap after the restart, the right front of Gordon's No. 24 Chevrolet made contact with the left rear of Stewart's No. 14 Chevy between Turns 3 and 4. Stewart tried to gather up his car and was hit from behind by Edwards' No. 99 Ford, which turned Stewart's car into the right rear of Gordon's, which set off the crash and triggered the race's seventh and final caution.

The race was red-flagged for 20:28 while the track was cleaned and the derelict cars of Gordon, Stewart, Edwards, Juan Montoya, Joey Logano, Paul Menard, Jamie McMurray, Clint Bowyer and A.J. Allmendinger either hit pit road or were returned to the garage.

"That is just a product of 15 guys really wanting to win a race -- that's what we all get paid to do and they were trying to make it happen," said Steve Letarte, Gordon's crew chief. "I think that's how racing is now, but I think four tires was the call and you've got to make it happen on those first couple laps because once they get strung out, there isn't a lot you can do. They were making it happen and just ran out of room."

When he emerged from the track's infield care center, Gordon agreed, after leading the most laps in the race, 126, in seven times out front but only ending up with a 31st-place finish to show for it.

"Every second, every position counts on those restarts, with that few of laps to go," Gordon said. "I saw Tony backing up and then he got loose. I was trying not to get into him, I ended up getting underneath him and we were three-wide. Then I saw [Johnson] out on my left corner sneak in there as well -- just saw a lot of guys racing hard and we ran out of room.

"I got clipped in the right rear and it turned me in the wall. Just glad I'm OK. Man, what a race car we had. That's what I'm bummed out the most about, is that we just had such an awesome race car." (Continued)