RELATED: Hear Harvick's in-car audio during the 'Big One'
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- After a relatively calm start to Saturday's Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway, the "Big One" came just after the race's midpoint when more than half the field was caught up in a chain-reaction accident in Turn 1 involving many race favorites.
Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr., Dale Earnhardt Jr, Kasey Kahne, Jamie McMurray, Chase Elliott and polesitter Greg Biffle were among those involved in the 22-car accident on Lap 89 of the 160-lap race. Several of the cars were so badly damaged they couldn't return to competition.
McMurray's Chip Ganassi Racing crew was among those working feverishly to repair his No. 1 Chevy so it could at least collect points to help him contend for a top-16 position in the Chase postseason scenario. He finished 34th.
His car was involved in the incident that triggered the chain-reaction accident. McMurray and Johnson had a private conversation about the incident outside the infield care center once the two were checked out and cleared medically; both said individually that they were trying to assess exactly what happened.
"I only saw one replay but it looked like the 48 got into my left rear quarter panel and it shot me down the track and I got into the 42 and I just didn’t have any control of the car," McMurray said from the garage while his team worked on his car.
"I got the car straight and thought I was just going to just lose my momentum, but the 48 ended up hooking me again and sending me into the outside wall.
"First off, no one really knows what happened. You have to look at the replay because it happens so quick out there. Jimmie just asked me what I thought happened."
Johnson said he was still trying to figure out what exactly happened and wanted to see video of the accident. Nonetheless, it was frustrating after he had worked his way into the top 10.
"The 1 (McMurray) car was on the outside lane and came across my nose and got to the 42 (Kyle Larson) a little bit and we were all straight and fine, but they slowed up more than I could and my momentum carried me back into the back of 1 and around we went," said six-time Cup champ Johnson.
"Just hard racing, the cars are slipping and sliding a lot, the race track is aging, the handling is becoming an issue. I'm excited about that and think it's going to put on a good race, but those slips turned into a big crash for everybody. We were in a big wad."
It was a rough outcome for so many contending cars -- several like Johnson's and Harvick's were loaded onto the team transporters unable to continue. Others returned to the track to finish the race multiple laps down.
"Just a bunch of cars crashing -- pretty much that was it," said Matt Kenseth, whose No. 20 DeWalt Toyota was among the wrecked cars. He returned to the race, however, 34 laps off the pace to finish 28th.
"I was just trying to make my way back toward the front a little bit there. We had a bad pit-stop exchange and came out way, way behind everybody.
"Carl (Edwards) was up toward the front and we were running with him before the pit stop. I probably should have just hung in the back, hindsight, but who knows when they're going to wreck, you never know if they're going to wreck. Just trying to get back toward the front and there was a wreck somewhere a few rows up in front of me and just nowhere really to go."
Championship points leader Harvick suffered a 39th-place finish -- his worst result of the season. He's only finished out of the top 10 four times this season, and his previous worst showing was 17th at Martinsville, Virginia. This is Harvick's first DNF (Did Not Finish) of the year.
"You really think it is going to happen from Lap 1," Harvick said of the "Big One." "It is hard to make ground, so you have to be pretty aggressive when you start making ground.
"Just kind of riding there just maintaining until that next pit stop so we could get my car off the ground and then really start being aggressive. I really couldn't be aggressive and unfortunately I was in the back of that front pack and ended up getting in the wreck."