The big one: Massive wreck takes out majority of field late at Talladega

The BIG one at Talladega! It looks like a car graveyard out there at Talladega and there are a lot of NASCAR Playoff drivers involved. Austin Cindric, Chase Briscoe, and a whole lot of other cars were involved.

The bottom line was stacked up and Austin Cindric took too big of a bump from Brad Keselowski. It would be easier to name the drivers not involved in this wreck, to be honest.

This is going to completely change the NASCAR Playoff picture going to the Roval. Talladega just delivered the big one today.

IT'S NOT JUST A BIG ONE. IT'S THE HUGE ONE!

Nearly the entire field involved in this crash at Talladega! #NASCAR

📺 : NBC pic.twitter.com/poJkMCPuIn

— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) October 6, 2024

Austin Cindric was in control. Then, he was spinning out in the front of the field. This is going to hurt drivers like Logano, Elliott, Bowman, and Briscoe. And those are just the playoff drivers who were caught up in this ordeal.

For a driver like Ryan Blaney, this is a huge reprieve. If other playoff drivers DNF today, it makes his DNF not as bad in comparison.

When you race at Talladega, these wrecks happen. There was so much great racing today on the superspeedway. Before you knew it, cars were spinning around. Then, the race track looked like a parking lot.

This wreck is going to have major implications for the NASCAR Playoffs. As the end of the race approached, the energy ramped up. When push came to shove, it was the No. 2 who got the push and the shove. The result – a field of wrecked cars.

28 cars involved in late Talladega wreck

When the smoke cleared, 28 cars were involved in this incident. There are only 12 cars on the track that were not in one way or another involved in the wreck. Those were 12 very lucky drivers.

When a car snaps up the track on the backstretch from the front, big wrecks happen. At the end of Stage 2, we had a significant wreck that involved Ryan Blaney, Ross Chastain, and Joey Logano. So, Logano gets involved in two wrecks today before being a DNF.

This has taken extensive cleanup. The crews at Talladega are working as hard as they can. It feels like there aren’t enough tow trucks at the track to deal with this mess quickly and efficiently.

Sit back and relax. This is going to take a long time to get sorted and NASCAR will have to make a lot of tough decisions. While some cars are being repaired, others are not. Then there are wrecked cars that have received a tow back to pit road – that is sure to cause controversy after recent rulings from officials.