Talladega wreck uncharacteristically early. Lap 7 early. "I saw an opening, went for it and it closed up in a hurry," Gordon said. "I think somebody got into Matt Kenseth. He came up and I had nowhere to go." Kenseth made it through and has been running in the top 10 ever since, but Mark Martin, David Gilliland, Scott Riggs and Jamie McMurray ended their days on that wreck. "I'm fine," Martin said, smiling. "I told you I wasn't racing for points. I got a win last weekend. I'm fine. Maybe we'll go do that again at Richmond." Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, A.J. Allmendinger, Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne's cars got banged up but were not ruled out of ther race right away. Bowyer's was eventually. "Hopefully it's wrecked bad enough to where we can't drive it anymore," an angry Harvick said afterward.
The garage immediately following the wreck looked like the end of a race with crew members from all the teams running furiously in case they had to get to work. I heard an angry curse shouted from inside the 33's garage. A dumbfounded Todd Berrier walked in a daze back toward pit road as he waited for the 29 car to be towed into the garage. Some drivers criticized making a move so early in the race. Kasey Kahne took a different attitude.
