‘The Big One’ at Talladega came early. Here are videos of wreck, Kurt Busch reaction
Kurt Busch was in the air celebrating his win at Las Vegas with a helicopter ride over the city last weekend. A week later, he was in the air at Talladega mid-race as his car was flying through the air.
“I was hoping for a nice smooth ride,” Busch said on NBC. “...Next thing you know I’m going on one of the wildest rides I’ve been on.”
Busch was involved in the “Big One,” which came before the end of the second stage at the superspeedway, a track notorious for delivering major wrecks.
Busch emerged from his No. 1 Chevrolet after the red flag came out with just over 100 laps completed. He was one of 13 other drivers collected in the wreck. Clint Bowyer, Jimmie Johnson, Cole Custer, Kyle Busch and Daniel Suárez were also involved.
Bowyer, a playoff driver, sparked the accident when he tapped the tail of Johnson running in the top-10. The contact sent Johnson wiggling and into the side of Busch, who then sailed to the outside wall as Cole Custer slid underneath him. Busch’s car when into the air and landed. Bowyer, Custer and Busch all exited the race with damage.
“Theres nothing that makes you feel worse than wrecking a bunch of cars at that place,” Bowyer later tweeted. “You push because it helps, you block because it helps. We were in a position that we felt I needed to get stage points and was pushing hard to stay in position to do so.”
Custer said on NBC that he could see tire marks from Busch’s Chevy on the top of his car, but didn’t appear frustrated by the accident. Johnson posted on Twitter after the race, “Sure, it’s plate racing... but that was stupid,” likely in reference to the accident.
The next NASCAR Cup race is Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Roval 400.
This story was originally published October 4, 2020 at 4:44 PM.
