Massive pileup halts NASCAR Sprint Cup race at the Monster Mile

On a restart with 46 of 400 laps remaining, leader Jimmie Johnson failed to come up to speed and it appeared Martin Truex Jr., who was lined up behind him, plowed into the rear of Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet.

That move ignited a massive wreck that ended up collecting 18 cars of the 40-car field, and in the processed knocked several contenders for the win – including Johnson and Kevin Harvick – out of contention.

“As soon as I went from second (gear) and tried to go into third. It didn’t even go to third,” Johnsons said after a visit to the infield care center. “I went from third and fourth and then eventually I got hit from behind.

“I thought maybe I missed a shift but it just wouldn’t go in gear. Martin was getting impatient with me. He gave me a couple opportunities to try to find a gear but it’s locked and won’t go into gear for some reason.”

The race was red-flagged for just over 11 minutes while track safety workers tried to clean up the mess.

In addition to Johnson, Harvick and Truex, others involved in the incident included Jamie McMurray, Ryan Newman, A.J. Allmendinger, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Aric Almirola, Denny Hamlin, Greg Biffle, Casey Mears, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Clint Bowyer, Trevor Bayne, Paul Menard and Michael McDowell.

In my career I have never had a transmission do that to me,” Johnson said. “With no gear available is something I’ve never had before.”

Almirola told media that he thinks he may have broken his pinky finger in the crash.

Busch, who was far back in the melee, was asked what it was like to be in that experience.

His reply, “Wait for me, I’m coming …eventually. We weren’t having the best of days and trying to figure out what was wrong with our car. I was just trying to hold on to it.”