With 15 laps to go in Sunday's AMP Energy Drink 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, a good portion of the Chase for the Sprint Cup contenders looked ready to challenge for a win in a race known for being a wild card on the Chase schedule.
And with 14 laps to go, they found out why Talladega was such a wild card.
Heading in to turn 3, Carl Edwards was running second in the outside line of cars when he pushed a little too hard on teammate Greg Biffle while the two were bump-drafting. Biffle lost control of his Ford and slid into his other teammate Matt Kenseth.
With all three cars sliding across the track, chaos ensued in the pack behind them.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. slammed into the side of Kenseth's No. 17, pole-sitter Travis Kvapil got clipped in the rear and hit the outside well head-on and Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Michael Waltrip, Dave Blaney, Juan Pablo Montoya and Reed Sorenson all got a piece of the mess.
Edwards, who had rode around most of the race at the back of the pack to avoid trouble, directly apologized for the incident and accepted full responsibility, though that didn't please his teammates or Harvick.
"Looked like the 99 should have drafted all day because he obviously wasn't ready to come up front," said Harvick.
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Following the mess, Tony Stewart was shown as the race leader as only 18 cars remained on the lead lap after a crash-heavy day at the Alabama track.
