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.
Doesn't look like it'll be three in a row for #CarlEdwards after this one. #GEICO500 https://t.co/XyE9PSnOXM
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) May 1, 2016
“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.
Aaron Bearden is a Frontstretch alumnus who’s come back home as the site’s Short Track Editor. When he isn’t working with our grassroots writers, he can be found talking about racing on his Morning Warmup newsletter, pestering his wife/dog or convincing himself the Indiana Pacers can win an NBA title.