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Big wreck brings out red flag late in race at Talladega; 17 cars involved

JL_KHERWOUC1
The red flag had to be brought out at Talladega after a big crash took place coming out of the backstretch on Lap 172

With just 16 laps to go, a major wreck prompted NASCAR to throw the red flag for cleanup in the Alabama 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

The 17-car pileup seemed to begin when David Ragan lost control of his No. 38 Ford, triggering havoc in virtually every direction.

Six playoff-eligible drivers were involved: Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth.

"(Ragan) ended up just parked in front of us,” Stenhouse told NBC. “We felt we had a car that was capable of contending for a win. It’s a bummer we didn’t get the win. ... Just wasn’t our day.”

Added Kyle Busch, “Just never saw it coming. Unfortunately, we got caught up in the mess, none of our doing. We’ll just have to go on and go to Kansas.”

Added Truex, “I tried to get in a hole that was closing up at the wrong time. I got into the 38 in the right rear and it all got squirelly. We had nothing to lose today, but at the same time you don’t want to be the person that causes others problems. I’ve never been that guy here before, but today it looks like it was. I just wish I didn’t make that mistake. Bad judgment. I should have been more patient.”

Non-playoff drivers involved included pole-sitter Dale Earnhardt Jr. (who only had minor damage and was able to continue on), along with Austin Dillon, Landon Cassill, Michael McDowell, Brendan Gaughan, Matt DiBenedetto, Ragan, Ryan Newman, Paul Menard, Ty Dillon and Danica Patrick.

The race was red-flagged for 12 minutes, 30 seconds before resuming under caution.

Jimmie Johnson complained that NASCAR officials gave his team approval to work on the car on pit road, but it was subsequently sent to the garage for doing so (repairs aren’t permitted under the red flag), leaving Johnson to question the call.