It didn’t take long for the action to heat up in the Alabama sun. The 43-car field took the green flag for Sunday’s Aaron’s 499 at the Talladega Superspeedway and within a lap the field was two and three wide with drivers jockeying for position.  With cars pushing each other to the front and bouncing off one another, it all came unraveled on Lap 7.

Going into the third turn, Matt Kenseth was pushing Martin Truex Jr. into the corner. Kenseth moved up the track to move around Truex, however Jeff Gordon and David Gilliland were to his outside. The No. 17 made contact with Gordon as the field entered the corner. The contact sent Gordon ricocheting off Kenseth and Gilliland on his outside. Once Gordon began to slide, the field stacked up and in the end half the field was wrecked on the inside of the track.

When the smoke cleared, the cars involved included Gordon, Gilliland, Mark Martin, Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick, Jamie McMurray, AJ Allmendinger, Max Papis,  Scott Riggs, Casey Mears and countless others with slight damage.

Nine cars went to the garage for repairs while their drivers headed to the infield medical center.

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