Chris Buescher, Martin Truex Jr., Matt DiBenedetto and Justin Haley were involved in a late-race wreck with seven laps remaining in Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
Shortly after exiting Turn 2, Buescher appeared to be turned into the backstretch wall by Aric Almirola. DiBenedetto was trailing and had nowhere to go, running into Buescher’s car.
“We just got turned,” Buescher told Fox Sports. “We had a good driving car and put ourselves in a good position there with a handful of laps to go.
“We just turned right, got hit and turned right into the fence, destroyed our race and several race cars. Its typical of these racetracks. It gets frustrating every time you come to these places and something like this throughout the race. It’s just not very much fun.”
DiBenedetto’s car caught fire, but he was able to escape unscathed.
Truex and Haley, making his first career Cup start, also were caught up in the resulting aftermath.
The race was briefly stopped under a red flag for track cleanup.
Heading into the final lap, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. wrecked in a single-car incident, followed by a heavy crash that involved Kyle Larson, whose car flipped several times before landing upright, as well as David Ragan, Jeffrey Earnhardt and William Byron.
“Initially I thought I was going to hit the inside wall and right before I got there, it started to lift,” Larson told Fox Sports. “That was probably the longest flip I’ve ever had. I just didn’t know if it would ever stop.
“I knew I was flipping and was just hoping I wouldn’t get any closer to the catchfence. It was a little bit scary, but I’m all right. Thanks to the fab shop at Chip Ganassi Racing for building safe race cars. Like I said, it was scary, but I’m just thankful I’m OK.”