The “Big One” occurred during the waning circuits of Stage 2 in the YellaWood 500 on Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, bringing huge ramifications across the postseason field.
Battling three-wide in the backstretch, Ryan Blaney, driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford, checked up and transitioned from the middle lane to the high lane, with Chase Elliott behind him. The ensuing lane movement created misalignment, with Blaney making contact with Bubba Wallace and creating a domino effect as a result.
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“It wasn’t his fault,” Blaney said regarding Logano’s move before the wrecking sequence. “We were both trying to protect it. Both of us didn’t time it very good and unfortunately wrecked folks. I feel like I had a hand in kind of being aggressive there, but it’s a shame guys got tore up.”
Eight drivers in The Chase presented by Mobil were involved: Blaney, Elliott, Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace, Ty Gibbs, Daniel Suárez and Ryan Preece. Denny Hamlin, also a Chaser, additionally received front-end damage.
Non-Chase drivers involved in the incident included: Ross Chastain, Noah Gragson, John Hunter Nemechek and Gray Gaulding. Twelve total cars were involved in the wreck.
WATCH: Blaney discusses wreck | In-car views of ‘Big One’
The wreck sends shockwaves across The Chase field, with Hamlin, Blaney and Reddick all entering Sunday’s Talladega race inside the top seven in the championship table. Just two postseason races remain following Talladega, with Martinsville Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 1 and 8, respectively.
“It’s on life support,” Blaney said regarding his title hopes. “That’s for sure, but you never know. It definitely doesn’t help. That’s something we couldn’t afford to have today, and unfortunately it happened, so we’ll just have to go show up next week and try to do the best we can.”
Elliott, Reddick and Blaney finished 36th, 37th and 38th, respectively. With Kyle Larson’s Talladega victory, the wreck, in addition to the Lap 183 multicar incident, the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet unofficially holds a 73-point lead over the next closest driver (Hamlin, minus-74). Blaney sits sixth in the standings, 107 points behind Larson. Reddick, meanwhile, is seventh, 126 markers behind.
Elliott, Wallace, Gibbs, Suárez and Preece were among the nine Chase drivers eliminated from title contention.