After a relatively calm afternoon at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, chaos reigned on a restart with less than 10 laps to go.
Carl Edwards, who had restarted fourth, made contact with Ryan Newman and cars started spinning. Edwards spun to the outer wall, slamming the wall hard and making contact with Brad Keselowski.
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Newman went down onto the grass then spun back up across the field. Danica Patrick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ryan Blaney were also caught up in the crash.
The race was red-flagged with less than six laps to go so NASCAR could clean up the track.
For his part, Edwards took responsibility for the accident immediately after it.
Big wreck at the end of the #Brickyard400. https://t.co/2Fabvz1XTP
— NASCAR on NBCSN (@NASCARonNBC) July 24, 2016
“It felt like I just got tight down there,” Edwards told NBCSN. “I’ve been having a little trouble with the splitter on the starts I got down there, we were fighting really hard for the bottom. It felt like I just got tight and hit whoever was on the outside of me. So if indeed that’s what happened, I apologize. That’s pretty frustrating. I don’t know if he came down or if I came up, but it felt like I got in there and just scrubbed that right front.”
Edwards added he might not have gotten his tires cleaned as well as he needed either, but reiterated that he was having some issues with the splitter.
“Sorry for everybody that got tied up in that,” Edwards said on the broadcast. “That’s tough.”
Shortly after the ensuing restart, Trevor Bayne and Clint Bowyer made contact, spinning to the inside wall and causing another caution period.