A multicar wreck involving several race-contending heavyweights brought out the first caution of the day in Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway.
As a collection of cars headed to pit road on Lap 43 during Stage 1, Brad Keselowski’s No. 6 RFK Racing Ford veered into Kyle Busch’s No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. The contact resulted in both cars steering up the race track, clipping Alex Bowman’s No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and collecting Ryan Blaney’s No. 12 Team Penske Ford.
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“It was just a stack of guys trying to come to pit road as fast as they could, and we were kind of the ham in the sandwich that got squeezed,” Keselowski said. “I waved down the backstretch to let everybody know I was gonna pit, and I came off of four, and everybody was so tight behind me that I didn’t even have a chance to turn left. I hate that it ruined not just our day, but several other people’s day. I don’t think I could do anything different.”
Five cars were involved in the incident, with Chris Buescher’s No. 17 RFK Racing Ford also suffering damage. Buescher retired from the race less than 10 laps later after a spin involving him and Christopher Bell’s No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Buescher was scored 34th, with Bell 35th.
The damage to Keselowski’s and Blaney’s machines proved too much to repair, resulting in both drivers retiring for the day. Keselowski officially finished 36th, while Blaney was tallied 37th. With the finishes, both drivers have combined for seven DNFs this season (Keselowski three, Blaney four).
“It looked like a group of guys trying to get to pit road and maybe some guys not knowing that they were coming to pit road and not giving them any room,” Blaney said. “I saw the 8 and 6 kind of get hooked together, and they were going up the track, so I kind of picked the bottom and tried to get out of there, and I think they clipped someone outside of them, and the 6 came back into me, and I got clipped in the right-rear. Oh gosh, man, another DNF. It just sucks. Just when we were kind of getting our momentum and didn’t even get to race today. We’ll just move on to Texas.”