A push gone wrong on lap 115 of Sunday’s (April 26) Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway took out a majority of the NASCAR Cup Series field.
As Bubba Wallace led the field down the backstretch, a push from Ross Chastain sent Wallace into the outside wall in front of the pack, triggering a massive wreck that collected a majority of the 40 cars running in the race. At least 26 were heavily involved; thankfully, all drivers emerged from their cars under their own power.
The crash brought out the red flag and was eerily similar to a similar huge crash early in the 2025 summer race at Atlanta that essentially cut the field in half for the majority of the race.
Stage one winner Preece, Chris Buescher, Chastain and Christopher Bell were the only four cars who escaped ahead of the wreck.
As for the rest? Wondering how things turned into a pile of crumpled sheet metal in mere seconds. Five drivers were out of the race on the spot, Wallace among them.
“Hate it for our team,” Wallace said. “Unfortunate. Some cars are better at being pushed. I think we were lacking that a little bit.”
Cole Custer briefly ran up front before he was involved in the crash. A promising day ended with the No. 41 Ford all torn up.
“The 23 shot up into us and it was all over,” Custer said. “It’s just one of those things. You have 90 laps to go. You know they’re probably going to wreck but you want stage points.”
Joey Logano was also involved after running up front. His frustration over the current Next Gen car and this style of racing boiled over afterward.
“Do you want to save fuel or do you want to wreck?,” Logano said. “We got bot today. We got round bumpers and unstable cars. It’s frustrating.”
Other top-tier contenders just were left scratching their heads about it all.
“It just checked up hard, I saw smoke and all of it,” added Kyle Larson. “It was definitely more [fuel] savings than I anticipated in the first stage. The intensity was way more the next one. You can’t really unlearn what you’ve already learned.”
“We just kinda all got pinballing off each other there,” said Ryan Blaney. “We just all got nose bumper-tagged there. The 23 ended up getting turned in front of everybody and causing a big wreck. I don’t think there’s any blame on anybody. One guy eventually gets turned with the car as unstable as it is. You’re just ramming through the guy in front of you.”
A member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA), Samuel also covers NASCAR for Yardbarker, Field Level Media, and Heavy Sports. He will attend the University of Arkansas in the fall of 2025.