The “big one” hit early on lap 46 at today’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Geico 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, taking out a massive chunk of the field. Here’s the pile-up, in case you missed it.

Trevor Bayne’s number 6 Ford got loose when Kurt Busch’s number 41 Chevy got next to Bayne and took the air off the left side of the car. Bayne spun out and collected a ton of cars with him. Airflow is king at superspeedways like Talladega, so any interruption can make a driver lose control.

According to , Danica Patrick, David Ragan, Greg Biffle, Kasey Kahne, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ryan Newman, Kyle Larson, Joey Logano, Aric Almirola, Kevin Harvick, Alex Bowman, [pauses to catch breath] Justin Allgaier, Jose Wise and Matt DiBenedetto were all caught up in the accident.

Bayne, Ragan and Larson were seen by the infield care center and released.

“I’m fine,” Bayne told . “My feelings are hurt. We had a fast race car.”

The carnage was ridiculous with so many cars having to be brought back in for repairs.

Ouch! Everyone is lucky that the only serious injuries were bruised egos.

Because the smash-’em-up happened so early, many cars in the crash were able to be repaired and catch back up with the race.

Could one of the cars in the pile have the comeback of the day? We’ll know shortly.

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