NEED TO KNOW
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A 26-car pile-up, one of the biggest in NASCAR history, occurred on Sunday, April 26, at Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway
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Bubba Wallace was in front at the time but was one of a few drivers unable to continue after the crash
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Carson Hocevar won the race for his first career Cup Series victory, narrowly beating Chris Buescher
Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway saw one of the biggest crashes in NASCAR history with a total of 26 cars involved.
Bubba Wallace was leading in Turn 3 at Lap 115 on Sunday, April 26, when the pile-up occurred, per Fox-owned site OutKick.
Footage of the incident
Credit: @NASCARONFOX/X
According to the NASCAR website, contact between Wallace and Ross Chastain prompted the pile-up to unfold and led to a red flag stoppage that lasted for 10 minutes, with footage shared on X by Fox.
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Most of those involved were able to continue, but a few — including Wallace and previous Talladega winners Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano — couldn’t resume.
“Got wrecked there, unfortunately,” said Wallace, who’d been leading on the 2.66-mile track on three separate occasions before the crash. “Our Xfinity Toyota Camry was a little unstable getting pushed, but manageable. Maybe that hard of a hit was too much, so unfortunately, we wiped out a bunch of cars.
“Got to debrief, got to be better,” he added, before saying he’d “put this one behind us and go on to Texas and have some fun.”
Blaney said afterward that “we all just got pinballing off each other there,” and explained that nobody was to blame for the incident. “We all just kind of get bumping and banging, and one guy eventually gets turned with the car being as unstable as it is,” he went on. “It definitely stinks to be out early.”
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The record for the most cars involved in a crash is still held by a race in the 2002 Busch Series, again at Talladega, with 31 vehicles involved, per OutKick.
After Wallace, Blaney and others couldn’t continue, Carson Hocevar won. Per NASCAR, he earned his first career Cup Series victory in the process as he narrowly beat Chris Buescher.
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“I’m just so thankful,” he said, “This is the biggest dream I’ve ever thought of. Thank you, everybody. I couldn’t have done it any better way.”
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He continued, “Hopefully, my grandfather is watching. My grandmother died last year, and I’m just so thankful I can give my grandfather a trophy now. Just unbelievable, I’m just so thankful.”
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