Talladega wreck collects Truex, McMurray, Larson, more
The cars are already a handful to drive this weekend at the Geico 500 in Talladega, and a cascading wreck collected half a dozen cars just over a third of the way through the race.
At Lap 73, early in the second stage, Erik Jones got loose coming out of Turn 2. The resulting pinball took out Trevor Bayne, Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr., and Jamie McMurray:
Jones and Bayne were unable to continue, and Larson had to leave the race after his team exceeded the six-minute time on pit road available for repairs.
The wreck saw one curious new element introduced on NASCAR’s pit road: a highway concrete cutter that Martin Truex Jr.’s crew used to slice bits of the 78’s fender away. It was an unconventional use of a new tool, and NASCAR will likely have something to say about it later this week.
This marked the second major wreck of the weekend for Jamie McMurray, who flipped six times in a practice wreck earlier in the weekend. Bayne, meanwhile, was coming off a week in which he was informed he’d be bounced from the 6 car in favor of Matt Kenseth for several races this season. Not the way either of them wanted their day to go, certainly.
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.
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