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Keselowski leads halfway at Talladega; Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kahne wreck

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series GEICO 500

Dale Earnhardt Jr. watches as his team makes repairs to potentially get him back on the track after wrecking on Lap 50 with teammate Kasey Kahne and two others.

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Brad Keselowski is in front at the halfway point (at the end of Lap 94) of Sunday’s scheduled 188-lap Geico 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

Rain is in the area, which has prompted drivers to race the last several laps as if they’re the final laps of the race – which could possibly be the case if the race is unable to be restarted later.

Pole-sitter Chase Elliott is second at the midpoint, followed by Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth and Martin Truex Jr.

Matt Kenseth has led the most laps (30), followed by Elliott (23) and Keselowski (18).

On Lap 50, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who is the winningest active driver at Talladega with six wins, appeared to lose control and struck the cars of teammate Kasey Kahne, David Gilliland and Matt DiBenedetto.

The wreck was very similar to the crash Earnhardt was involved in the season-opening race at Daytona.

“It was the same thing as Daytona,” Earnhardt told Fox Sports. “We have to look at our adjustments different. … The car wasn’t driving very well. It was on the split real bad in the first run and that run. … There’s no real downforce on the back of the car and it just gets loose.”

Both Earnhardt and Kahne limped their cars back to the garage for repairs.

Another wreck occurred on Lap 58. Joey Logano pushed Martin Truex Jr. into Michael Waltrip, who spun out and collected several other cars including Casey Mears and Aric Almirola.

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