Talladega ‘Plate Racing Produces Another Wreck-Fest

Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. (17) piles into Kevin Harvick (4) during a last-lap crash at Talladega

When the smoke finally cleared on Sunday's GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, Brad Keselowski emerged as the winner, grabbed an American flag from one of his crew, and did a post-celebratory burnout among the scattered debris of what was left of a tangled mess of eight cars that all piled in during the final chaotic run the checkered flag.

Keselowski hadn't so much won Talladega as much as he survived it. Survived it with nary a scratch on his pristine white no. 2 Ford. He was one of the lucky ones – one of only five cars to emerge from Sunday's race unscathed and one of only 21 drivers to actually finish the race.

Only it wasn't as much of a race as it was a 188-lap demolition derby. A 190-mph death-defying stunt show that people paid money to see, hoping for exactly the type of racing they saw on Sunday: lots of wrecks, lots of fire, lots of excitement.

The fans got what they wanted. The drivers just wanted to get out of their cars in one piece.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. limps back to the garage after his first crash Sunday at Talladega

"Hell, I'm going home. I'm done," said Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who wrecked twice during Sunday's race.

Sunday's race saw a staggering number of race cars torn up and crumpled. 21 cars collected in the first big crash on lap 162. Another 12 cars on lap 182. Eight cars on the final lap.

In all, 35 of the 40 entries were caught up in some incident in one way or another. Some cars were caught up twice, some three times, one four times. The scene in the garage after the race looked more like the aftermath of a Saturday night late model race at the local dirt track.

Matt Kenseth goes on his roof

The day's most frightening moments happened when the cars of rookie Chris Buescher and former Cup Champion Matt Kenseth both wound up going upside down in separate incidents. Kevin Harvick wound up going roof-first into the SAFER barrier in the final melee coming to the checkered flag.

Fortunately, Buescher, Kenseth, Harvick and everyone else involved in Sunday's multitude of crashes were able to walk away. This time.

Restrictor-plate racing has been a fact of life in NASCAR since 1988, and in the years that have followed, the racing has become more aggressive and the crashes have gotten bigger.

In fact, it was at this same race back in 2009 where Keselowski got his first-career Cup victory that Carl Edwards spun out and got airborne on the final lap, showering the grandstands with debris and landing several fans in the hospital.

But, it's all a part of racing, right?

Carl Edwards goes flying through the air during a last-lap crash in the 2009 race at Talladega

"Racing has always been that balance of daredevils and chess players," said Keselowski. "Some weekends we're chess players, some weekends we're daredevils This has always been the more daredevil style of track, which probably offsets some of the tracks that we go to where we're the chess player.

"We don't want cars to go in the air. There's never a guarantee where they are going to land. We don't want them to land in a fan's lap.It's a fair question. Sorry I don't have an answer. I have an answer for a few things, just not that one."

Of course, it's easier to play the daredevil role when you're sitting in Victory Lane. It's not nearly as easy when you're the one barrel-rolling down the backstretch like Buescher.

"I am pretty sick and tired of speedway racing at this point," Buescher said after the race.

Fortunately, although plate racing hasn't gotten any safer, the race cars have, and so have the tracks, thanks to new safety innovations like the current Gen6 car and soft walls like SAFER barriers that have kept drivers safe. For now.

But all the soft walls and all the safety features mean little when you have cars flying through the air, with drivers hanging on for the ride.

Austin Dillon goes airborne at the July 2015 race at Daytona

Third-place finisher Austin Dillon ought to know – last July, Dillon went airborne on the final lap at Daytona and impacted the catchfence in the front straight, tearing his car in half. Dillon was fortunate to walk away unharmed, waving to the cheers of the crowd.

The same crowd that was cheering when the field came by three- and four-wide on the final lap.

"I've been on the wild side, if you remember my wreck last year. I know what it is. Today it didn't happen to me," said Dillon. "We don't like to be a part of crashes. It's not what our job is, is to crash. Our job is to compete and have fun out there and put on a show.

"Putting on a show, in that crashes happen. I don't think of it that way. I think people, if they're cheering for crashes, man, it's not a good thing."

And "not a good thing" is a scenario defending Cup Champion Kyle Busch knows intimately too, after missing 11 races last season as a result of injuries sustained in the season-opening Xfinity Series race at Daytona.

He, for one, was relived to get out of Talladega.

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"] "When you leave here and you're okay, yeah," said Busch. "I think the quota of three cars on their lids today is a little high, but it's racing. I hate it. I'd much rather sit at home. I got a win. I don't need to be here.

"You know, it's just Talladega. It is what it is. These cars, you try to get a little bit aggressive, start bumping people and pushing people, they're real easy to get out of control. I really don't know why we're bumping and pushing and everything else, because these cars, they go slower when you push. Makes a lot of sense. That's how stupid we are.

"It's been this way for 30 years, so… stop complaining about it, I guess."

It was clear from Sunday's race that something needs to change, before someone gets killed. But as long as fans are willing to shell out the money to see gladiators fight to the death – there will always be plate racing.

"There's still people paying to sit in the stands, sponsors still on the cars, drivers still willing to get in them," said Keselowski. "Sounds self-policing and enough interest to keep going, so we'll keep going."

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]