Less than 30 laps from the finish of Saturday night’s Sprint Unlimited, the first “Big One” of Speedweeks 2015 erupted when Jamie McMurray lost control of his car and ignited a 14 car incident.
In a tight and large pack, McMurray spun out of the top line after apparent contact with Greg Biffle and turned him down across the track. Unable to save the car, he shot back to the right and into the path of the majority of the field.
Among the drivers involved the incident included reining NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick, defending Sprint Unlimited winner Denny Hamlin, six-time NSCS champion Jimmie Johnson, pole-sitter Paul Menard, Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch, Kasey Kahne, Aric Almirola, Clint Bowyer, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth.
Danica Patrick sliced her way through the incident and emerged unscathed.
Biffle sporting new colors with Ortho sponsorship attempted to blame the incident on McMurray, saying over the radio, “Jamie was super loose there. He was wiggling all over the place.”
McMurray agreed to a point.
“Well, it was when he had my back tires off the ground. It’s hard to hang onto it,” McMurray said in the garage “He was helping me, and it happened two or three times before; it’s just part of it. When you get a big run like that, you get to the guy and have to start pushing, because if you don’t, you lose all your momentum.
“Everyone’s racing really hard tonight. It was actually a lot of fun out there,” said McMurray.
Fun for a while, his 24th place finish though wasn’t as much.
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