NASCAR GEICO 500 Talladega Briefly Halted After Massive 15 Car Pile-Up


NASCAR got a little sticky Sunday at the Talledega Superspeedway during a massive 15 car pileup after Trevor Bayne lost control of his number 6 car on lap 47, taking several GEICO 500 favorites with him.

“I haven’t seen it yet, but it looks like the Number 27 just got too close to us,” Bayne said of number 27 driver, Paul Menard, according to ABC News. Bayne was checked out by the infield care center, and released. Paul Menard tried passing the number 6 Ford Fusion, with Kurt Busche right behind Bayne. The aerodynamics caused by Menard right next to the car, along with Busche right behind him, caused Bayne’s Ford to snap around. “It felt like [Menard] was really tight on our door and sucked us around,” Bayne said.

Bayne’s car slid up the side wall coming out of Turn 2, according to NASCAR‘s official website, then spun, taking 14 other cars with it, including Daytona 500 winner Joey Logano, Kasey Kahne, Kyle Larson, and Danica Patrick. Patrick, as previously reported by the Inquisitr, reportedly just lost her primary sponsor, GoDaddy, under speculation that the millions required to outfit a top NASCAR driver are simply too expensive for the web hosting company. GoDaddy is also dropping all NASCAR sponsorship.

The race was stopped for 11 minutes, but the 15 car accident only halted Bayne and Larson for the rest of the day. “I hate that a lot of cars got torn up, especially the Number 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion. The air is so sensitive here. When you get too close to somebody, it just pulls you around,” Bayne said about the accident.

“I didn’t see a whole lot,” Larson told NASCAR.com. “I saw the Number 6 get sideways in front of me. I don’t know if somebody got into him or not, or if he just got the air taken off of him. From there just trying to miss the wrecks, and I thought I was going to clear it all, then the Number 40 started coming back up the track and I clipped him. It’s tough.”

The 15 car accident didn’t effect Dale Earnhardt Jr. Earnhardt won the race, his first at Talladega Superspeedway since 2004. “It’s just real emotional. I haven’t won here in a long time. My daddy’s birthday a couple days ago,” he told USA Today, speaking of Dale Earnhardt Sr., who would have been 64 on April 29. “Everything’s just so good for me right now, my personal life. I don’t feel like I deserve it. I just feel overcome with a lot of emotion.”

NASCAR also ejected one of Number 51 Justin Allgaier’s crew members for not wearing protective headgear or face cover when handling a gas can behind the pit road wall. NASCAR is cracking down on safety since last week’s huge fire at Richmond International Speedway that injured 3 pit crew men.

[Image credit: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images Sport]

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