Seven cars were involved in an accident on Lap 96 of the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway that sent Chris Buescher‘s No. 34 barrel-rolling three times before settling to a stop.
The No. 48 of Jimmie Johnson and the No. 46 of Michael Annett were also casualties of the pileup, as Johnson’s Chevrolet went spinning toward the infield and Annett’s entry slammed hard into the interior wall.
The wreck was set off by contact between Austin Dillon and Jamie McMurray as the race reached just over the halfway point of the scheduled 188-lap race. Contact between the two cars resulted in Dillon hitting the exterior wall, setting off the domino effect.
Buescher wound up with the worst of the impact. He reported that he was OK as he walked out of his car under his own power.
“Typical Talladega,” Annett told FOX. “Last thing I saw was the 34 start to get airborne. You never want to see that, but luckily he came out OK.”
Buescher said he wasn’t entirely sure what set off the accident that resulted in his airborne ride.
“I really have no clue,” Buescher told FOX. “It’s not the way we wanted to finish Talladega. We just got clipped. I’m tired of superspeedway racing, I can tell you that. If we didn’t have bad luck, we’d have no luck.”
While he was flipping, Buescher said everything turned quiet.
“(It was) miserable,” he said. “It’s a bummer. No fun. Ready to go home.”
Also involved in the wreck were Carl Edwards and David Gilliland.