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NASCAR Forced To Halt Race After Historically Large 28-Car Crash At Talladega Superspeedway

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Anybody who has watched a NASCAR race at Talladega Superspeedway knows that they can often get chaotic.

Forty cars are running nearly 200 miles per hour just inches away from one another, and it one person makes a mistake, it often ends up in a massive crash.

But on Sunday, things reached new heights after a 28-car pileup took out nearly the entire field and forced NASCAR to throw a red flag, halting the race altogether.

Mistake At Front Of Pack Leads To Huge 28-Car Crash At Talladega NASCAR Race

The crash occurred with just five laps remaining when former series champion Brad Keselowski, with help from another ex-series champ and former teammate Joey Logano, accidentally spun leader Austin Cindric.

Cindric, who had no control, spun right and then back left, collecting almost every single driver in line behind him.

“Everyone just gets more aggressive at the end of the races,” Logano said. “The No. 2 (Cindric) got out there a little bit more than what he has been. The No. 21 (Harrison Burton) gave me a shove, and I transferred that to the No. 6 (Keselowski). You can’t see what’s in front of you from there.

“He got to the No. 2 with a fair amount of steam; it’s nobody’s fault, it’s not Brad’s fault, it’s not anybody’s fault. It’s the product of the races we’ve got. Everyone gets more and more aggressive as the laps wind down. It happens; it happens a lot.”

It does happen a lot. So much so that the term “The Big One” was created to describe multi-car wrecks at Talladega and other superspeedway-style tracks. But on Sunday, the wreck was the biggest one.

The previous record for most cars involved in a single accident in NASCAR’s modern era was 27.

The crash was especially significant for Cindric and Logano, who are both still in the NASCAR Cup Series playoff. A victory would have automatically advanced Cindric to the next round. While Logano went from eight points above the playoff cutline at the time of the incident to 13 points behind.

The pair now have one race, next week at Charlotte, to try to advance. Cindric likely needs to win that race. While Logano must find a way to catch either 8th-placed Chase Elliott or someone above him.