Kentucky natives meet again at Talladega, renew relationship

THROUGH MAY 8: Nominate a volunteer for the 2015 award

The NASCAR Foundation’s Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award presented by Nationwide is accepting nominations for 2015 through next Friday, May 8. The winner will receive $100,000 and a brand new Ford vehicle while three other finalists will receive a minimum $25,000 donation from The NASCAR Foundation.

While I was Miss Kentucky USA in 2012, I served on the board of the Kentucky chapter of Best Buddies International, a foundation that promotes friendship and equality to children with special needs.

Each member of the foundation gets paired with a "buddy," and Daniel Noltemeyer and I were paired together in February of 2012. We participated in activities around the state.

It’s Derby Week actually in Kentucky right now, and three years ago, Daniel and I walked in a Kentucky Derby fashion show. We also participated in dance marathons and other events.

Last December in Las Vegas when I was named Miss Coors Light, I found out that Daniel had won the Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award for Best Buddies International. He was up on stage at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Awards Ceremony, and we had a little reunion.

We’ve kept in contact since then. I’ve got his email so we’ve been best buds, and we write on each other’s Facebook walls. You have no idea how excited I was to see him here at Talladega because it’s been five months since we last saw each other.

It’s so funny how we got introduced three years ago through Best Buddies Foundation, and now we’ve found our worlds colliding again in NASCAR.

He’s such a good person, and it’s been exciting seeing him do his thing.

(Left to right) Miss Coors Light Amanda Mertz, 2014 Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award presented by Nationwide winner Daniel Noltemeyer and Emily Cleveland, State Director, Kentucky at Best Buddies International, meet in the garage at Talladega Superspeedway on May 2, 2015.

Chase, points won’t alter No. 88 driver’s restrictor plate strategy

TALLADEGA, Ala. – Dale Earnhardt Jr. is well aware of the expectations he carries into Talladega Superspeedway twice a year. These are his grandstands, his Nation, his personal playground.

The roar of adoration every lap Junior leads echoes through the foothills surrounding this track, and with 832 laps out front here, it’s been a loud and constant refrain. But, it’s been 11 l-o-n-g years (October, 2004) since Talladega’s crown prince last won a Cup trophy here.

"I feel like it’s a real disappointment for a lot of people when we don’t finish well and if we are not up in the battle trying at the end,” Earnhardt said. "If we are not in that group crossing the finish line that is up front, I feel that disappointment from all the supporters of our team, more so here and at Daytona than other race tracks for sure.”

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Earnhardt will start his No. 88 Nationwide Chevy fourth in Sunday’s GEICO 500 (1 p.m., FOX), trying to win for the sixth time in a Cup race here.

A year ago Earnhardt came into this race already qualified for the Chase for the Sprint Cup thanks to a victory in the season-opening Daytona 500. Interestingly though, he says his strategy for Sunday isn’t much different than last May when his postseason already had been decided.

"We will just try to be a little more aggressive I guess to try to win Sunday,” Earnhardt said. "We don’t have anything to lose."

"I don’t expect there to be 16 winners. I believe we are good enough to get in (the Chase) in one of those last positions by points. I’m not really nervous.

"I feel like I can go out there and be as aggressive as I want to be and take some chances and see what happens. So I don’t feel like that points or the Chase or anything will be in the back of my mind bugging me or buzzing around. I can go out there and do what I need to do and enjoy myself.”

Contrary to what you’d think based on his success on superspeedways, Earnhardt says "I love short track racing … love Bristol and Martinsville the most."

But there’s no denying his ability at the other end of the spectrum.

With eight restrictor plate wins – 11 top 3s at Daytona alone and a string of four consecutive Talladega wins from 2001-2003 (five in a span of seven races), Earnhardt is considered one of the best in this genre and he shared a little about his mindset during races.

"You’ve got to be in the top-three all day long to expect to be in the top three in the end when it counts,” Earnhardt said. "If you get shuffled out, it’s so hard to pass these people with this kind of car, we sit there in two lines, the bottom and the middle. And you aren’t going to jump out there by yourself and go around them.

"So you’ve sort of got to sit there in line and hopefully some dummy pulls out and he gets shuffled back,” Earnhardt said laughing. "Hopefully that happens a lot and you end up toward the front."

Three-time champion clears air after Richmond, seeks Talladega turnaround

RELATED: Stewart, Dale Jr. make contact at Richmond | Junior’s Talladega strategy

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Tony Stewart has heard the talk-radio callers and seen the posts on social media, his mighty fandom worried about the three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champ’s slow start to the season.

He’s frustrated too. But he’s also hopeful.

The video has been replayed repeatedly showing Stewart throw his helmet and HANS device into the back of his team’s race hauler after a late-race accident at Richmond International Raceway with Dale Earnhardt Jr. last Sunday ended one of the better runs he’s had this season.

"That wasn’t frustration at Dale Jr., that was frustration that we haven’t had many days where we were running as well as we were that day. … and then to have it end up like that,” Stewart said Saturday from Talladega Superspeedway. "Junior and I are friends. We’re fine."

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Dressed in golf clothes, eating a sandwich before heading out to an afternoon round of golf — his new hobby — Stewart sat down for a rare one-on-one interview this season. Certainly aggravated by unacceptable results in the 2015 season, he was also steadfastly committed to getting things on track.

He has only one top 10 in nine starts and five finishes 30th or worse. He’s ranked 30th in the championship standings — the minimum points position a race winner must have to qualify for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Stewart has heard the critics, but remains his own worst. He says the new rules package with the cars — high downforce and low horsepower  — does not suit his style. In fact, it is the opposite of everything he’s ever driven. So even a driver with 48 Cup wins and three championship trophies is learning all over again.

"It’s like I’m in the middle of a calculus equation, and I didn’t take pre-calculus,” Stewart said. "I’m working on it."

The part that upsets him most is any blame directed toward his crew chief, Chad Johnston. Stewart says the two have the best driver-crew chief relationship he’s ever had and has nothing but good things to say about Johnson’s talents.

"Chad isn’t getting the results he deserves,” Stewart said.

The pair did have some encouraging results with the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Chevrolet SS in qualifying for Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Stewart rolled off sixth, tying his best qualifying effort of the season at Martinsville Speedway, but would finish 19th.

As far as his Stewart-Haas Racing team, Stewart is very happy for his other drivers. Reigning Sprint Cup champ Kevin Harvick has a pair of wins and leads the championship standings. Kurt Busch won last week at Richmond to earn his Chase berth and for more than a month, Danica Patrick has been inside the top-16 in points  — the cut-off mark to qualify for the Chase.

He sounds like a proud father talking about the trio. And as for the news this week about Patrick needing a new primary sponsor for next year and her status in a contract year, Stewart was upbeat.

"Are you kidding me? She’s the most marketable driver in the sport,” Stewart said. "And as for her driving, I’ve never been more proud of her.”

Still, Stewart wants nothing more than to beat her to Victory Lane this year — winning for his fans as much as for himself. He said it’s frustrating to hear his longtime supporters doubt him.

Reminded that the summer months have traditionally tended to be his time to collect race trophies, Stewart sat back and smiled.

"I pray that’s the case,” he said. "I’m hoping so.”

Team Penske has no substitute driver planned at Kansas

RELATED: Brad Keselowski’s opinions on the Sprint Cup schedule

TALLADEGA, Ala. — A three-time winner at this week’s Sprint Cup Series venue, the wildly unpredictable Talladega Superspeedway, Brad Keselowski knows a thing or two about getting the timing right. When it comes to the impending birth of his first child, he’s pretty confident he’s got the timing down there, too.

Keselowski and his girlfriend, Paige White, are expecting a daughter sometime in the next two weeks, the 2012 Cup champ confirmed Friday from Talladega.

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Because he expects to be home in Charlotte for the back-to-back weekends of the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race May 16 and the Coca-Cola 600 May 24, Keselowski said Team Penske has not tabbed a replacement driver for him.

"As far as contingency plans, we haven’t really made any because we’re very, very fortunate that everything at this time looks to fall directly in line with the race weeks in Charlotte, which is where we live," Keselowski said.

"Fingers crossed. We’ll see how it all plays out, but I’m looking forward to it very much."

Keselowski addressed the topic Friday during an announcement that his No. 2 Ford would carry new primary sponsorship from high tech company Avaya in next week’s race at Kansas Speedway. It’s a major get for the team and a sign of the times in NASCAR in general.

"I think NASCAR is trying very, very hard to continue to push the technical side and having more technical partners," Keselowski said. "So I think this is not just a win for Team Penske, but also a win for all of motorsports and NASCAR, in particular."

Wins are something Keselowski is familiar with at Talladega, where he scored three of his 17 career victories — including his first Cup win in 2009 and perhaps his most clutch Cup win last October.

Needing nothing less than a victory to advance to the third round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Eliminator Round, Keselowski got a push from his Penske teammate Joey Logano and held off the charging field in overtime to take the win.

The result had major championship implications with Keselowski and Logano advancing in the playoffs and three preseason favorites, Hendrick Motorsports drivers Jimmie JohnsonDale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne having their title hopes stopped.

"Talladega, last fall was unbelievable," Keselowski said. "I think that’s probably the most emotional I ever got besides my first win in NASCAR. … That’s probably the most emotional win I’ve had in quite some time, so it certainly meant a lot to me."

"As far as the clutch factor, or whatever, I try not to read too much into that. I feel like if you get caught up in that you kind of let those emotions get to you and sometimes that’s maybe not in your best interest focus-wise.

"But all in all that was just an incredible weekend and one I’m gonna look back on for quite some time and be proud of."

Hendrick Motorsports places four cars in top five in Talladega qualifying

RELATED: Qualifying results

Jeff Gordon surged to the 80th Coors Light Pole Award of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career in Saturday afternoon qualifying at Talladega Superspeedway.

Gordon, in his final full season driving the Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet, notched a fast lap of 194.793 mph on the 2.66-mile track. The Coors Light Pole Award was also Gordon’s third of the season and fourth at Talladega.

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All-time Coors Light Pole Awards

Rank Driver Poles
1. Richard Petty* 123
2. David Pearson* 113
3. Jeff Gordon 80
4. Cale Yarborough* 69
5. Darrell Waltrip* 59
6. Bobby Allison* 58
7. Mark Martin** 56
8. Bill Elliott* 55
9. Ryan Newman 51
10. Bobby Isaac** 49

*NASCAR Hall of Famers
**NASCAR Hall of Fame nominees

Gordon, who also won the pole position for the season-opening Daytona 500, claimed the No. 1 starting spot by .281 seconds.

"We definitely have a fast Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet," said Gordon, the last driver to make a qualifying attempt. "I think we’ve shown that all weekend long. But you never know what you’ve got until you put it on the clock. I am so proud of this pole because we got the pole in Daytona, but it was a totally different format. I knew the car was fast there. For this team to bring another car, a different car here, and all the hard work from the engine shop and what they do with the bodies, and chassis and prep. A lot of hard work goes into this and (crew chief) Alan Gustafson takes a lot of pride in these. They should, this is awesome.

"And awesome for Hendrick Motorsports to be on the front row. This was all them. I played a small role at Daytona, but I played no role today, but it was fun."

Kasey Kahne pushed the Hendrick No. 5 Chevy to a lap of 193.685 mph, snaring the second starting spot for Sunday’s GEICO 500 (1 p.m. ET, FOX). Ryan Blaney qualified third at 193.611 mph in the Wood Brothers Racing No. 21 Ford. Teammates Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson were next, placing all four Hendrick Motorsports cars in the top five starting spots.

The session was the series’ first since NASCAR mandated rules changes for qualifying on tracks where restrictor plates are used to limit engine horsepower. The group qualifying format introduced before the 2014 season often created large aerodynamic packs, gamesmanship and the threat of multi-car crashes.

After a particularly wreck-heavy Speedweeks to open the season for all three national series at Daytona International Speedway, NASCAR competition officials dropped the group format for Daytona and Talladega. Instead, drivers participated in single-car runs, released to the track in staggered intervals, in two rounds — the opening round for all cars, with the final 12 advancing to the final round.

David Ragan, making his final start in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota in place of the injured Kyle Busch, was ninth-fastest in qualifying. He’ll move to the Michael Waltrip Racing No. 55 Toyota for the rest of the season, starting next weekend at Kansas Speedway, where JGR development driver Erik Jones plans to make his Sprint Cup debut in the No. 18.

In the meantime, team owner and occasional driver Michael Waltrip qualified the No. 55 ride in 23rd spot for Sunday’s 500-miler at Talladega.

Defending Sprint Cup Series champion and current points leader Kevin Harvick was 24th-fastest in the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Chevrolet. Defending race winner Denny Hamlin managed the 17th-fastest lap in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Toyota.

Kyle Larson took the 13th starting spot in the Chip Ganassi Racing No. 42 Chevrolet, missing out on a place in the final round by just three-thousandths of a second. Michael McDowell and rookie Jeb Burton failed to qualify for the 43-car field.

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See where all 43 drivers will pit in Sunday’s GEICO 500 (1 p.m. ET, FOX)

RELATED: Starting lineup

In his next-to-last race at Talladega Superspeedway, four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon won his 80th Coors Light Pole Award and chose the first stall at pit exit in Turn 1.

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Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kasey Kahne qualified second and took the 17th stall with an opening in front of him. Wood Brothers Racing with Ryan Blaney nabbed third in qualifying and chose the 39th stall toward the entrance to pit road, also with front opening. The last stall with an empty spot in front is the 29th, and fourth-place qualifier Dale Earnhardt Jr. chose it.

The fourth Hendrick driver, Jimmie Johnson, qualified fifth and picked the 43rd box, the first open stall at the entrance to pit road off of Turn 4.

Stewart-Haas Racing‘s Tony Stewart tied for his best qualifying effort of the season in the sixth spot, and he chose the 38th stall with an open box behind him. Richard Childress Racing‘s Paul Menard was seventh-fastest in Saturday’s session and picked the 28th stall with a space between him and Earnhardt behind him.

Joe Gibbs Racing‘s Matt Kenseth and David Ragan qualified eighth and ninth respectively with Kenseth choosing the 41st stall and Ragan selecting the second stall.

Richard Petty Motorsports driver Sam Hornish Jr. rounded out the top 10 and chose the 16th stall with a blank space behind him.

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By winning the Coors Light Pole Award at Talladega Superspeedway, Austin Dillon earned first choice of pit stalls for Saturday’s Winn-Dixie 300. The No. 33 Richard Childress Racing driver selected the second pit stall, which is the last stall on pit road, giving him an easy exit.

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The younger Dillon — Ty — will also start from the front row at Talladega. He selected the sixth pit stall, four pit stalls down from his older brother Austin.

Third-fastest in qualifying, Brian Scott selected the 17th stall, which has no stall directly in front of it. Fourth and fifth-place qualifiers Erik Jones and Boris Said chose the fourth and 16th spots, respectively. Said’s 16th spot has no stall behind it.

Reigning XFINITY Series champion Chase Elliott qualified 14th and picked the 38th pit stall, which is closer to the entrance of pit road and has no stall in behind it.

The Winn-Dixie 300 at Talladega Superspeedway will begin at 3 p.m. ET with coverage on FOX.

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Penske driver posts win No. 3 of 2015; Ty Dillon holds points lead

RELATED: Race results

Joey Logano survived a wild Saturday afternoon at Talladega Superspeedway, securing a thrilling NASCAR XFINITY Series victory in the Winn-Dixie 300.

Logano, driving the Team Penske No. 22 Ford, led a race-high 40 of the 113 laps and held on at the checkered flag. It marked his third victory of the season, his second on Talladega’s 2.66-mile layout and 24th of his XFINITY Series career.

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"It’s like a combination of the old school draft and the cars hooking up and bumping, so it’s kind of a combo of what’s going on out there, but it’s so fun and so intense," Logano said. "I’m still trying to catch my breath, but it’s so intense out there and you’re looking at everything in the mirror the whole time, so it was cool to get this thing in Victory Lane. Our pit coach, Brian Haaland, his dad passed away this week so we know he was riding along with us."

Brian Scott drove his smoking Richard Childress Racing No. 2 Chevrolet entry across the finish line second, just .130 seconds behind Logano at the checkered flag. Austin Dillon, winner of the Coors Light Pole Award earlier in the day, came home third in another Childress Chevy. J.J. Yeley finished fourth with Joey Gase a career-high fifth.

Ty Dillon finished a remarkable eighth to emerge with the lead in the shaken-up XFINITY Series standings after a topsy-turvy day. He started second alongside his older brother RCR teammate Austin Dillon and led 26 laps early until he was penalized for speeding during the first round of green-flag pit stops.

The younger Dillon’s day got worse in the 74th of a scheduled 113 laps when a 10-car crash erupted as the field slowed to make the second round of green-flag stops. By the time the smoke cleared, Daniel Suarez, Ryan Reed, Kenny Wallace, Aric Almirola, John Wes Townley, Chad Boat, Brendan Gaughan, Ryan Seig and Gase were also involved. The third caution period of the day eventually brought out a red flag for massive clean-up.

The crash sent cars sliding down the early segments of pit road. One of those was Gaughan’s No. 62 Chevrolet, which hit the pit wall nearly head-on as he slowed to a stop. The impact caught two crew members for the Biagi-DenBeste Racing No. 98 team. Both were sent to the track’s infield care center; one was eventually transported to a local hospital.

Dillon was in the center of another multi-car melee that brought out the eighth yellow flag on Lap 97, when contact between his car and the No. 84 of Boat sparked another stack-up off Turn 4. The cars of Kasey Kahne, Dakoda Armstrong, Darrell Wallace Jr., Mark Thompson, Benny Gordon and Blake Koch were also collected.

Defending series champion Chase Elliott hit trouble early, causing the second caution after a flat right-front tire sent him into the Turn 2 wall on the 38th lap. Elliott had just completed a green-flag pit stop, skidding onto the entrance of pit road when he locked up his brakes of his JR Motorsports No. 9 Chevrolet in an attempt to slow for the 55-mph pit road speed limit.

Elliott radioed his JRM crew to say, "absolutely killed," to describe the car’s right-side damage. After emerging from the car in the XFINITY Series garage, the 19-year-old driver said the skid contributed to the tire giving way. He eventually returned to the race, but finished 37th, 29 laps down.

"Just flat-spotted the right-front coming in, and a few laps later, there she went," said Elliott, who ranked second in the XFINITY standings before the race. "I hate it. We’ll try to get it fixed. I’d say it’s pretty well done, but maybe not. We’ll try to get some points if we can. If not, we’ve got a long ways to go."

The race was in its second lap when a near-disastrous collision at the front of the field triggered the first caution. Race leader Elliott Sadler chopped down on Roush Fenway Racing teammate Darrell Wallace Jr. on the backstretch, sending both cars sliding toward the apron.

Both drivers managed to avoid a complete spin, but the cars of Brendan Gaughan and Mike Bliss tangled behind the front two, trying to avoid a major pileup.

After the major developments, Dillon stayed atop the standings, nine points ahead of Chris Buescher, who led the next-to-last lap before fading to a sixth-place finish. Elliott slipped to third in the XFINITY standings, tied with Darrell Wallace Jr., 37 points off the top.

Ty Dillon makes brotherly sweep of Talladega front row

RELATED: Qualifying results

Austin Dillon surged to the Coors Light Pole Award in Saturday qualifying for the NASCAR XFINITY Series at Talladega Superspeedway, clinching an all-Dillon front row with his younger brother, Ty.

Austin Dillon, driving the Richard Childress Racing No. 33 Chevrolet, posted a lap of 180.540 mph around the 2.66-mile track. He’ll start first when the Winn-Dixie 300, the ninth of the series’ 33 races this year, takes the green flag Saturday at 3 p.m. ET (FOX).

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Series points leader Ty Dillon clinched the second starting spot in the Richard Childress Racing No. 3 Chevrolet with a lap of 179.892 mph. Brian Scott landed the third starting position at 179.538 mph in the No. 2 Chevy, clinching a 1-2-3 sweep in qualifying for team owner Richard Childress.

Erik Jones, set to make just his 12th XFINITY start Saturday afternoon, was fourth-fastest in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota. He was just ahead of JGR teammate Boris Said, making his first appearance in the series since 2011, driving the No. 54 Toyota in place of the injured Kyle Busch.

The session marked the first time since NASCAR competition officials scrapped the group qualifying format on tracks where restrictor plates sap engine power. The previous format, introduced before the 2014 season, has worked well on almost every other type of track, but did not translate well to stock-car racing’s largest speedways, where gamesmanship and close racing in aerodynamic packs led to multicar crashes.

After a series of stackups in qualifying for all three national series during Daytona Speedweeks in February, NASCAR’s competition department made a rules change March 30 to revise the restrictor-plate qualifying system.

Saturday, drivers made single-car runs with no more than two cars on the track at a time in a staggered start to their qualifying laps. One portion of the 2014 qualifying change remained — the knockout stages — with the fastest 12 cars from the first round advancing to the final round to determine the order for the first six rows on the starting grid.

Dakoda Armstrong, piloting the Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43, was 13th-fastest in the opening round, making him the first driver to miss the final cut. Armstrong was just ahead of defending series champ Chase Elliott, who qualified 14th in the JR Motorsports No. 9 Chevrolet.

Chris Cockrum, Derrike Cope, Carlos Contreras, Bobby Gerhart and Mike Harmon failed to qualify for the 40-car field.

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Kenny Wallace: ‘The whole field can’t pit at one time’

TALLADEGA, Ala. – Differing pit strategies on a high-speed race track and indecision at a crucial moment resulted in a multicar crash sweeping up 10 cars during Saturday’s Winn Dixie 300 NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Talladega Superspeedway.

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The wreck began on lap 74 as the field swept off the fourth turn of the 2.66-mile track; it didn’t begin to subside until the leaders had well beyond crossed the start/finish line.

“About the lap before, they said that the leaders were going to pit,” driver Kenny Wallace told FOX Sports 1 after exiting the infield care center. “And I thought, ‘Hell, the whole field can’t pit at one time, they’re all going to wreck.’ And they did.

“The whole field can’t pit (at the same time). That’s really just the bottom line. You can’t say it’s one person’s fault; you’ve got to split that stuff up. We’ve raced here for 100 years. Just had a big old wreck, the whole field trying to pit at once.”

NASCAR officials red-flagged the race for 7 minutes, 56 seconds, in order to attend to drivers and clear the debris.

While no drivers were injured, two crew men for the No. 98 Biagi-DenBeste Racing team suffered injuries when Brendan Gaughan’s No. 62 Chevrolet was hit and sent racing down pit road. Troy Brady, stationed behind pit wall and holding the pit board, was knocked to the ground when the car struck the sign; a second crewman was knocked down as well.

According to the team, both were taken to the infield care center. One was treated and released; Brady was transported to Trinity Medical Center in Birmingham, Alabama for further evaluation and released Saturday night.

Gaughan, who has two wins and 126 starts in the series, said he didn’t know if it was a case of drivers not paying attention or something else.

“When you’re pitting, get the hell out of the way and get down,” he told FOX Sports 1. “Talladega is easy to come on pit road. Just get out of the way. People don’t get out of the way. People try to come from the outside. Chaos happens. …

“We’ve been running so good. I got through Richmond with a decent finish and now we’re just sitting here picking up points again. It just pisses me off. It’s not that tough to get on pit road here, and guys for some reason can’t figure it out.”

In addition to Gaughan and Wallace, drivers involved in the wreck were Harrison RhodesJohn Wes TownleyRyan Sieg, points leader Ty DillonJoey GaseRyan ReedDaniel Suarez and Chad Boat.

Brian Scott and Austin Dillon — second and third, respectively, behind race winner Joey Logano — were out front when the melee erupted.

“I looked in the mirror after that and I was just happy … because me and Brian were sitting 1-2 and I said ‘this is going to be real good,’ ” Dillon said.

“We were talking before the race and … when they say ‘wrecking behind you,’ it’s like ‘whew!’ You just take a breath. You made it through that one at least.”

Said Scott: “There’s no greater feeling on a superspeedway when you look up in your mirror and you see smoke and you’re not any part of it.”