While Talladega's two multi-car pileups were ample cause for riled-up excitement in Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race (as they took out Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer, Mark Martin, Martin Truex Jr., Sam Hornish Jr., A.J. Allmendinger, Kasey Kahne, Kevin Harvick and several more top-runners,) it is Edwards' crowd-injuring crash that is likely to be remembered from the speedway. In the last lap of the 'Dega race, the battle for first place came down to a four-car struggle between Brad Keselowski, Carl Edwards, Ryan Newman and Dale Earnhardt Jr., with Edwards and Keselowski in a locked-in battle that ultimately led to Edwards' disastrous crash.
Keselowski nudged Edwards into first place with one lap to go in yesterday's intense race, but when Keselowski attempted to pass him, Edwards blocked the pass and inevitably caused contact that sent his car in a spiral, landing in a frontstretch fence and just barely missing contact with the grandstands. Debris went flying and ultimately injured seven race fans (though none seriously) becoming cause for evaluation by NASCAR officials to tighten safety features for upcoming races.
Carl Edwards made a statement following the race that while he wasn't pegging the crash on any one driver, he was upset that the accident had such a disastrous result. "I'm glad the car didn't go into the grandstands," he told the media. "I saw some fencing at one point and that made me a little bit nervous. I don't know if I could live with myself if I ended up in the grandstands." About the current rules on restrictor-plate racing at Talladega, Edwards said, "We'll race like this until we kill somebody, then [NASCAR] will change it."
This type of restrictor-plate racing that is in place at 'Dega also applies at Daytona, attempting to limit the high speeds at the two racetracks. Inevitably, this use of restrictor plates leads to a tightly-packed field on the track, and crashes are typically in high numbers at both speedways where they're in place. Dale Earnhardt Jr. spoke of this subject following Sunday's Talladega race, saying, "For years, we've had wrecks like this every time we've come to Talladega, ever since the plate got here. And for years it was celebrated. The media celebrated it, the networks celebrated it, calling it 'The Big One,' just trying to attract attention."
If these drivers sound like they're upset about the way things ran at Talladega, perhaps they are. Several drivers were out of luck yesterday following the two massive buildups during the race, and after the damage was done (including for those in the grandstands) reevaluation of the track and race will most likely be in question. Ryan Newman, who snagged a third-place finish at 'Dega, summed things up by saying, "Talladega is short for 'We're going to crash, we just don't know when.' We saw [an airborne car] two times this weekend, so maybe we need to look at things that keep the car down on the ground."
Indeed, some changes are unavoidable concerning safety at the track, but in the meantime the Cup Series will go on. Last weekend, Jeff Gordon lost his first-place standing for the first time since NASCAR season started, as Kurt Busch is now in first place after Talladega, and the excitement is just now getting started. Several more races are still to come this season, and NASCAR tickets are still available online in the meantime!
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Article Source: NASCAR Tickets - Talladega Brings Crashes, Leaves Seven Fans Wounded
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