Fans witnessed the biggest crash in Talladega’s NASCAR history at the Yellawood 500 with as many as 28 cars involved.
Championship protagonists, playoff hopefuls, and the rest of the field were all involved thanks to a spin at the front.
Brad Keselowski clipped the back of Austin Cindric, sending him spinning in the middle of the track and leaving most of the grid with nowhere to go.
It all happened with just five laps to go, which was most agonising for Cincric who was minutes away from securing his spot in the Round of 8.
Brad Keselowski blames ‘getting pushed’ for wreck
Keselowski has already been eliminated from NASCAR playoffs contention and sits 15th in the drivers’ championship.
The American driver ended up finishing second at Talladega, which is a whole lot better than it could have been for him.
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“[It] was just an interesting sequence of events,” he said. “[Todd Gilliland] was a slow car for whatever reason, and he stayed on the bottom, and we had the Ford train pulling the bottom.
“When he did that, it broke us all up, and when we rubberbanded back together, it just snapped. It’s a tough deal.
“I was getting pushed from behind and I ran into [Cindric], and he spun out. It just wasn’t a good sequence of events for all of us.”
Who else got caught up in the big shunt?
Chase Elliott, who sits right on the playoff cut-off in eighth was caught up in the incident, as well as fifth-placed Alex Bowman and seventh-placed Tyler Reddick.
It means that Joey Logano is now only 13 points from securing a berth in the Round of 12 if he can outscore Elliott by the margin required at Charlotte.
Daniel Suarez and Chase Briscoe were caught up in the chaos too, making it five playoff contenders that were involved.
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The final race of the Round of 12 at Charlotte promises to be a thriller as drivers who have nothing to lose attempt to turn their fate around.
NASCAR has proven that it can throw up all sorts of challenges, so expect there to be even tighter battles and thrilling contests on track next weekend.