The moments immediately after a race are absolute insane chaos inside the Sprint Cup garage. You've got crews from three dozen teams racing from pit road toward their haulers. You've got media, team officials and various interested onlookers. You've got every driver but the winner wheeling cars at high speeds through massive crowds. Everybody's trying to go somewhere different all in the same space at the same time. It's a miracle something catastrophic doesn't happen every week.

On Sunday, something almost did. As you can see in the video above, fire erupted from the 78 hauler. SB Nation's Jeff Gluck reported that the fire began when Furniture Row's gas man accidentally ignited the gas cans while preparing them for transport.

Thankfully, there were no injuries, though as you can see in the video, the flames briefly topped the edge of the haulers. There was significant damage to the 78 hauler itself, as well as some personal possessions in the adjacent hauler belonging to Jamie

TALLADEGA, Ala. —This track has a way of doing everything it can to make you uncomfortable, whether you're a driver, a fan or an owner.

For the second time in three years, a lame-duck driver has won Talladega, making for an awkward kind of podium pairing that perfectly matches the strange two-by-two circling that characterizes plate racing these days. In 2009, it was Jamie McMurray standing alongside Jack Roush just weeks after Roush cut him loose, and on Sunday it was Clint Bowyer winning one more race for Richard Childress before the two part ways at the end of the season.

Bowyer and Jeff Burton paired up for the entire day, forming the afternoon's dominant two-car team. Challengers included Tony Stewart (with two drafting partners, Ryan Newman and later Paul Menard) and the Red Bull duo of Kasey Kahne and Brian Vickers, but on the race's final restart, Bowyer and Burton leaped out to a huge lead, Burton in front. And once the drivers made the final turn, the real race began.

Bowyer

Here's our on-site video from Talladega, discussing everything from the continued 2x2 racing (sorry, friends, it's here to stay at the plate tracks) to the fading Chase hopes of Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick to the brewing Jeff Gordon/Trevor Bayne "team orders" controversy. Enjoy.

Everyone in NASCAR knew coming into the weekend that Talladega posed the greatest challenge to drivers' title hopes, and from that perspective, the Good Sam's 500 didin't disappoint ... provided you weren't a fan of those drivers. Several teams this weekend all but officially saw their Cup dreams fade into the haze of campfire smoke hanging over the track.

Here's how the Chase contenders finished the race, and where they stand now in the hunt for the Cup.

1. Carl Edwards — Finished 11th.
Edwards continues his streak of respectable finishes, and in this case he succeeded simply by staying out of trouble. He could have gone for the win a bit earlier, but he's nearly tripled his points lead, so he's not complaining.

2. Matt Kenseth — Finished 18th.
Like Edwards, Kenseth gets out of Talladega unscathed and manages to keep his Chase hopes alive. He's a little farther back than he'd like, but he's well within striking distance of his Roush teammate. (-14)

3. Brad Keselowski — Finished 4th.

While Talladega constantly gets mentioned as the "wild card" of every Chase, Kevin Harvick had to feel pretty good about his chances on Sunday. One of the best restrictor plate racers in NASCAR, Harvick had finished in the top 10 in six of his last seven starts at Daytona and Talladega -- the only bad finish coming when his engine failed early in this year's Daytona 500.

Harvick, who was five points behind Carl Edwards, ran up front for the first half of the race with teammate Paul Menard and was on the inside of the trioval on lap 104 when AJ Allmendinger spun off the bumper of teammate Marcos Ambrose. He had nowhere to go.

Kyle Busch was in the same predicament. He entered Sunday's race on the precipice of Chase contention. But he was in the line just above Harvick when Allmendinger spun. He didn't have a chance to react until after his car got hit.

Both cars had to go to the garage for extensive work, and Harvick was even black flagged for repairs after his car was leaking oil.

If you ever have the opportunity to wheedle your way into a NASCAR driver's meeting, do it. You'll get an eyeful of all the drivers and crew chiefs hanging out, chatting with one another (or not) in a way that could fuel speculation for the rest of the week.

On Sunday morning at Talladega, teammates generally hung with teammates. Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer were huddled deep in conversation for one of the last races they'll run together under the same banner. The Hendrick guys sat in a single, dominant row. Jack Roush was on one side of the front row with Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle; Richard Childress and Kevin Harvick staked out the other side of the front. Further back, Ryan Newman, Denny Hamlin and their respective crew chiefs were deep in conversation, most likely about the two-car draft plans.

At a driver's meeting, NASCAR officials introduce the VIPs of the day, thank a few sponsor executive VPs, and offer up a prayer. And then they turn it over to questions, and this time

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The racing world's rough week continued on Sunday morning when MotoGP racer Marco Simoncelli was killed after he fell off his bike and was struck by other riders in the MotoGP of Malaysia.

From our friends at Eurosport.com:

They performed CPR in both the ambulance and for 45 minutes in the medical centre, but were unable to save his life.

"Because of the bad crash to him during the race, he was hit by other riders, he reported a very important trauma to the head, to the neck, and to the chest," Macchiagodena reported.

"When our medical staff arrived on him he was unconscious. In the ambulance, they started CPR.

On October 16, Dan Wheldon was killed in a fiery crash at Las Vegas in the Izod IndyCar Series and off-road racer Rick Huseman perished in a plane crash on Monday.

Simoncelli, 24, finished 8th in the MotoGP points standings last year and was 6th this year. In 34 career MotoGP races, Simoncelli scored two podiums and two poles.

wheldonDid you miss a day or two of the Marbles this week? No sweat, we've got you covered. Here's what was happening as we approached Talladega:

• The passing of Dan Wheldon leaves us with so many questions, so few answers.

• In the wake of Wheldon's death, Jimmie Johnson said IndyCar doesn't belong on certain ovals, and he got plenty of (unjustified) grief for his comments.

• The Nationwide Series announced its 2012 schedule, and it looks like Kyle Busch will be running most of the races with his new Nationwide team.

• Which NASCAR drivers could star in a remake of "The Breakfast Club"?

• Holy sweet heaven, look at the size of the burger Joey Logano tried (and, alas, failed) to eat on "Man Vs. Food Nation."

• Jeff Gordon is getting part of Interstate 85 named after him. It's going to start out spectacularly well and then finish a lot rockier than you'd expect.

• Finally, don't share this video of the world's greatest Hot Wheels track with your kids. They'll expect you to make it.

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