Turmoil At Talladega - Keselowski Wins Crash Filled Geico 500
Above: The Big One at Talladega involved at least 17 cars with 28 laps to go.
Above: Chris Buscher goes for a wild ride on Lap 96 that also collects Johnson, Logano, McMurray and Dillon
Matt Kenseth is sent for a barrel roll when Danica Patrick's 10 car shoots down the track into the 20 car, also collecting Kevin Harick
By the time the Geico 500 at Talladega Speedway in Alabama was done, over half of the field was wrecked, had significant damage or was involved in some sort of altercartion with another car on the track.
It all started when Ty Dillon was poised and ready to take over the seat of the 14 car of Tony Stewart, something that Stewart and his doctor's agreed on, that he would race as few laps as possible and then call for a sub to drive the rest of the race for him. Dillon took over after Stewart drove the first 57 laps. Stewart commented that "it sucks" having to sit out the rest of the race, and that he could "drive the whole race" if the doctors and his team would have let him.
Danica Patrick, driver of the #10 and Paul Menard in the #27 had troubles early on pit road when Menard got Patrick turned around when she was trying to come in for service. They weren't the only drivers with issues. Denny Hamlin and Greg Biffle made contact in the pits when Biffle was trying to pit at the same time that Hamlin was trying to leave. Chase Elliott had trouble during one of his pit stops when he lost the draft after he exited pit road by himself, his teammates all had lines of 5 or 6 drafting partners and were running a good 10 miles faster than the 24 car.
The first caution happened at lap 50 when Tony Stewart's car cut off the 88 car of Earnhardt, sending him into the 5 car of Kasey Khane. Dale Jr would have much more trouble at lap 110 when he hit the wall in turn 2. He would go to the garage at that point. On top of that Dale had to fight with a steering wheel that came off while he was making a green flag run, and had to quickly readjust the wheel to the coupling before he lost the car into the wall.
Martin Truex understands what it's like to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was pushed up into the 55 car of Michael Waltrip by the 22 of Logano. Waltrip was sent down the track below the yellow line and back up into the 13 of Casey Mears. The 43 of Aric Almirola was also collected in the exchange.
More bad luck for the Hendrick Motor Sports crew this week, Kasey Khane slides down into the infield grass with 61 laps to go. "Something just broke", said Khane, who was relegated to the garage with his teammate Dale Jr.
Here are the results of the race at Talladega Speedway after the Geico 500.
