TALLADEGA, Ala. – Martin Truex Jr. profusely apologized for triggering a massive 17-car pileup in Sunday’s Alabama 500 that ultimately eliminated him and several of his Playoff driver contingents from competition at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
The ninth caution of the afternoon began when David Ragan was spun after contact from Truex while in traffic sending his No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford around in the path of heavy traffic, triggering chaos in virtually every direction.
When the smoke settled, six of the 12 playoff drivers suffered damage in the incident including Truex, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Of those involved Harvick was able to continue but was later collected in another crash with Playoff contender Ryan Blaney.
“I got into the right-rear of the 38 (David Ragan) car a little bit and he got squirrely and then they started wrecking in front of us so I don’t know if I turned him sideways and he hit somebody on the inside and then hit somebody on the outside in front of me,” said Truex.
“I’m not sure if that was the cause of the accident or it was just a secondary thing. I hadn’t seen anything up ahead of us. If it was my fault I hate it for everybody involved. Just Talladega. Just everybody running hard with 18 (16) to go and trying to get in a hole that really wasn’t there yet.”
Johnson was later parked by NASCAR for working on his No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet while the red flag was still in place. The seven-time champion, however, insisted his Hendrick Motorsports had approval from NASCAR officials to begin repair work.
“I’m OK,” said Johnson. “It knocked the wind out of me for sure. But the thing I’m most concerned about is that there was a cue given to our spotter for our guys to start working on the car. We went out and made a lap and advanced quite a few spots as a result.
“Now it looks like NASCAR is trying to take that away from us. Us and a few other cars heard the cue to allow the guys to start working when the red flag had finished but we didn’t get the cue on pit row. I’m still not clear on what all went on. I think we’re in a bad situation as a result. Hopefully, NASCAR can look at it and we can get this rectified.”
The crash also spoiled a solid day for Busch who now finds himself outside the cutoff heading to Kansas Speedway next weekend. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver entered the race sixth in the standings but now sits ninth, seven points behind Johnson.
“I had no clue what happened. I just saw the 38 (David Ragan) get sideways above me and then he came across my back and I missed him and he must have got the 48 (Jimmie Johnson) and the 48 shot up right across in front of us. I never seen him,” offered Busch.
“I wish I would’ve saw him a little bit down there. I could’ve shot to the apron and tried to miss him, but unfortunately, we just got messed up in that deal. I hate it for our situation and what we’ve got going on, that’s not what we needed today, but that’s what we got so we’ll just move on to next week.”
For Stenhouse who aimed for his third straight restrictor plate victory in the Alabama 500, his 26th place finish likely puts him in a must-win situation at Kansas being 11th in points and 22 markers behind the cutoff.
“We’re going to go out and have some fun,” said Stenhouse of his outlook on Kansas. “We got points in the first stage (today) like we wanted. We were in position at the end of the second stage to get points as well and it just didn’t work out.
“Then I felt like we were in a position we could work our way to the front right there and pass a few cars and be in contention for a win. It just wasn’t our day.”
Non-Playoff drivers involved in the incident included: Landon Cassill, Matt DiBenedetto, Austin Dillon, Ty Dillon, pole-sitter Dale Earnhardt, Brendan Gaughan, Michael McDowell, Ragan and Danica Patrick.
The crash was also the first of three red-flags in the event putting the field idle for 12 minutes, 30 seconds.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
