The start of the Geico 500 at Talladega Superspeedway was controlled chaos until a Chevrolet attempted to push a Ford. Bubba Wallace Jr., in his Chevrolet Camaro, attempted to push the No. Ford of Ryan Blaney, and it just didn’t work.
The pointed nose of Wallace’s No. 43 on the rear of Blaney’s No. 12 car caused Blaney to get loose and resulted in Wallace going back up into Michael McDowell‘s No. 34. The accident also collected Denny Hamlin, Clint Bowyer, Matt Tifft, and Kevin Harvick.
“The 43 put me three-wide,” said McDowell. “He was just being a little overly aggressive there for the beginning of the race so not really sure who caused it but I have a fairly good idea it was the 43. We were on the outside and they were crashing you know.
“The cars were pretty steady with big runs, you know kind of like we saw in practice but we’ll see.”
Wallace Jr. was running up front with his Blaney. As noted above, the two tapped and it caused the whole field to devolve into absolute chaos. Though he had a solid run brewing, his car would wind up being towed to the garage are just as the race had barely started.
“Just getting such big runs, I should’ve been wrecked about two laps ago,” said Wallace. “Kept leaving the middle open with Denny behind me so appreciate him for cutting me some breaks. Got another big run in the same spot on the 12 and knew I was clear on the bottom but I had too much of run to keep pushing Ryan so I don’t know if I crossed his bumper and got him sideways but as soon as I went to go to the apron it just unloaded and spun me out…”
“We should be out there,” Wallace said as cars passed by the infield care center going to green for the restart.
Hamlin and Bowyer continue to be in pursuit for the victory while Tifft, Harvick, Wallace Jr., and McDowell are all behind the wall and out of the race.
About the author
His favorite tracks on the circuit include Barber Motorsports Park, Iowa Speedway, Martinsville Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway, Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville, and Bristol Motor Speedway.
During the season, Christian also spends time as a photographer with multiple other outlets shooting Monster Energy AMA Supercross, Minor League & Major League Baseball, and NCAA Football.
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Funny the article seems with the headliner “Bubba” that he actually was a contender. Along with the TOYS LOVIN’ MCDUMB. LOL.
Bubba’s TV interview was spot on how he caused the wreck. He forgot one thing at the end though, that he ran out of talent in driving. Trying to save a 3600 pound race car going 200 mph into turn one with the steering wheel turned to the right is a big no-no, Cup racing 101.