Advertisement

Kahne, Harvick, Patrick caught up in early 15-car Talladega wreck

TALLADEGA, Ala. - It's always a matter of When, not If, when you're talking wrecking at Talladega. On Sunday afternoon at the Geico 500, "When" came around at lap 47.

Trevor Bayne lost control of his No. 6 Advocare Ford and set off a wreck that involved more than a third of the cars in the field. Of the 15 drivers in the wreck, several, including David Ragan and Landon Cassill, Kyle Larson, Greg Biffle, and Bayne, weren't able to return to the track.

The wreck happened when Bayne began to spin without contact. "It felt like the 27 (Paul Menard) was really tight on our door and sucked us around," Bayne said afterward. "The air is so sensitive here ... When you get to close to somebody it can just pull you right around, and it's as much as hitting somebody physically when you get down on their door that tight."

The wreck resulted in an 11-minute red flag for the race, followed by four laps of caution. The wreck heavily damaged Kasey Kahne; to a lesser degree, Danica Patrick, Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano, among others, also suffered damage. Kyle Larson was forced to sit by and watch as his car underwent repairs:

"I was hoping we could get a good finish and contend for a win here today," said Ragan, who is running his last race for Joe Gibbs Racing before switching over to Michael Waltrip Racing, "but just wasn’t meant to be."

____
Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter.

And keep up with Jay over on Facebook, too.