Early in Stage 2, race leader Bubba Wallace was being pushed into Turn 3 and spun off the nose of Ross Chastain and turned into the outside wall.
That triggered a massive pile-up as cars took evasive action. The ensuing chaos scattered cars through the infield grass.
Speaking after being released from the infield care centre, Wallace shouldered the blame for the crash.
“Damn,” said the 23XI Racing driver.
“Nothing to show for in the first stage. Obviously just trying to figure out the strategy stuff. Man, just hate it for our team. Don’t want to have any DNFs. We’ve got two now.
“Just a bummer. We’ve got to figure out how to be pushed better. So I take responsibility for that.
“We’ll have a good debrief and figure out what we can do to make our Toyota a little bit better being pushed and not have that happen.”
Trackhouse Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen was one of those damaged in the wreck. He reported being hit and potential damage to his toe link, which forced the team into repairs.
The race was red-flagged on Lap 115 with 73 laps to go.
More than half of the 40-car field copped varying degrees of damage, with the worst-off relegated to the pit lane to retire or repair their cars and go dozens of laps down.
Kyle Larson was one of those who was forced to retire his #5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro.
“There was a big stack-up and I was just in the middle of it,” said Larson.
“Just another Talladega result for us, but we got ourselves back there.
“It was starting to get hairy there at the start of the stage, so I wasn’t surprised to get wrapped up in that crash. It’s just an unfortunate end to the day.”
Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney also retired his #12 Ford Mustang.
“With the wreck, I feel like we all got pin-balling off each other a little bit,” said Blaney, who was immediately behind Wallace and Chastain.
“From what I’ve seen, we’re all bumping and bumping, and they were unstable.
“It turned Bubba to the top and the outside lane was there and he got clipped. Just one of those things.
“It closed tight quick and we all got pin-balling, and we’ve seen that so many times. You’re trying to lift and check, and next thing you know, everybody wrecks.
“Unfortunate. I hate that we were in the middle of it. I don’t really know if there’s anyone to blame, we all just started bouncing off each other.”
Under yellow, van Gisbergen reported a vibration prompting more repairs.
When the race eventually resumed on Lap 122, SVG said his car felt okay and SMT data confirmed repairs to the car had been successful.
There were only 20 cars left on the lead lap when the race restarted.
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