Race Weekend Central

Carl Edwards Crashes, Collects Dale Earnhardt, Jr. at Talladega

Looking for his third victory in a row, Carl Edwards was involved in one of many nasty crashes during Sunday’s Geico 500.

Edwards was running on the inside line through Turn 1 of the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway when a flat tire sent his No. 19 ARRIS Toyota rocketing up the track.

Unable to control his machine, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver slid into Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s damaged No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet, sending both drivers into the outside wall.

“I don’t know if a tire went down or what, but it was something,” said Edwards after being released from the infield care center. “It stinks. You hate to end your day like that, hate to take Dale (Earnhardt’s) car with us.

“It’s pretty frustrating, but we’re having a good year, and we know that when we can come to these places and have these kind of problems. Fortunately, I can just walk was and go race next Sunday at Kansas.”

Thankfully, Edwards was okay after a hard hit.

“It was a pretty good hit, but everything worked like it should have,” said Edwards. “All of the safety stuff worked well.”

The incident was the final blow in a miserable day for Earnhardt. Looking to score his seventh victory at the Lincoln, Alabama track, Earnhardt was involved in two incidents, and at one point even briefly lost his steering wheel.

“It’s been a terrible day,” said Earnhardt after being release from the infield care center. “Something broke on Carl (Edwards’) car there, and he went up the track and slid into us.

“It’s a long season, so we aren’t going to worry about it. (We’ll) just try to regroup and move on to the next one.”

Both Earnhardt and Edwards will get a chance to get things back on track next Sunday, when the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Kansas Speedway for the GoBowling.com 400.

About the author

A graduate of Ball State, Aaron rejoins Frontstretch for his second season in 2016 following a successful year that included covering seven races and starting the popular "Two-Headed Monster" column in 2015. Now in his third year of covering motorsports, Aaron serves as an Assistant Editor for Frontstretch while also contributing to other popular sites including Speed51 and The Apex. He encourages you to come say hi when you see him at the track.

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kb

Was there a police escort out of Goober Town? After all the Earnhardt birthers seem to think only an Earnhardt has a right to win there. I am sure he was chased by the villagers with pitchforks and torches. Dale, Dale, Dale, Dale….

spot1

Why would the Earnhardt crowd been pissed at Edwards? Junior was already 40+ laps behind so he had no chance of winning already?

Bill B

The best news is that we probably won’t have to hear about Amelia anymore. I was tired of hearing about it from media people that couldn’t come up with anything better to talk/write about.

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