Aaron's 499: Big Track, Big Wrecks

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Talladega is NASCAR’s longest, fastest track, and the crashes are proportionate. Everyone who drives at this track is forever on edge in anticipation of The Big One: that epic and nearly inevitable multi-car pileup that Dale Jr. once described as looking like the work of a gigantic invisible child on a destructive rampage. At every Talladega race, the Big One is always lurking, a monster in a dark tunnel: you might not see it coming, but it’ll get you sooner or later. During the Aaron’s 312, Saturday’s Nationwide Series Race, something approximating The Big One befell the field when Kevin Lepage pulled out of pit road into 200 mph traffic, a catastrophic move that resulted in 15 cars getting wrecked. But at the Aaron’s 499, things were disturbingly tranquil until close to the end. With only a couple of cautions for blown tires, the tension was mounting until Tony Stewart and a bunch of other drivers got caught up in what’s been dubbed "the Little Big One." There were a couple of close calls, like when Paul Menard skillfully managed to go spinning across the frontstretch infield instead of taking out other cars on the track. And then of course, all hell broke loose in the final lap.