Bubba Wallace’s crash in stage two during the Jack Link’s 500, which triggered the ‘Big One’ at the Talladega Superspeedway, was seemingly the most exciting part of the race for many. But as it seemed, the massive 26-car pileup resonated outside of the motorsports spectrum, too.

In a recent string of events covered by ABC News, Wallace’s wreck at Talladega was also included. Shortly after the 23XI Racing driver battled for the lead on lap 115 in the otherwise eventless race, he was pushed from behind by the field. This was from Ross Chastain, and understandably. The field was packed close together, and this move was inevitable. The bump from #1 got the #23 loose, as Wallace then T-boned the wall.

With the entire field bunched up, running three, and even four wide at parts, this small bump turned Wallace sideways, and he became a barrier for the following cars. This triggered a massive chain reaction, turning into a 26-car pileup. White smoke plummeted, covering the entire track as visibility took a hit. The drivers following up the pack somehow made it through.

“We all just got pinballing off each other there,” Ryan Blaney said. “We all just kind of get bumping and banging, and one guy eventually gets turned with the car being as unstable as it is.”

While there was no serious injury to any of the drivers, a large part of the field was wiped out. The race was red-flagged, but when it finally got going, it was barely half of the whole field. This also happened to be one of the biggest pileups in NASCAR history, coming close to the 28-car wreck on the same track back in 2024, during the playoff race in October.

An estimated 9 million people regularly watch the ABC World News Tonight program. So, safe to say, Talladega’s ‘big one’ was watched by many more than just the average racing fan.

Apart from Carson Hocevar’s race win, this was the most exciting part of the race for many. However, that reveals a dire narrative for the Cup Series, as the Gen 7 car’s raceability was once again questioned.

Cup Series is under question after the Talladega race

After observing the racing style at Daytona, NASCAR officials decided to flip the race structure around at Talladega, with the first stage being the longest. This was done in an effort to prevent the drivers from saving fuel and improving the overall racecraft. However, it didn’t seem to make any major changes.

The teams ended up flipping their strategies, and the fuel saving continued. In fact, for a large portion of the first stage, drivers were locked in a pack with minimal overtakes and almost no lead changes, making the first 98 laps rather disappointing for the viewers.

However, Denny Hamlin claimed on the Actions Detrimental podcast that it was mostly because of how the cars performed during the race. He suggested that the Gen 7 or the ‘Next Gen’ cars end up creating far too much drag, which makes it difficult to perform overtakes on superspeedways like Talladega. He also suggested that the fuel-saving issue would be resolved.

“Please get some drag out of this car. It’s got hundreds of counts more than our Gen 6 car. If you let us pull out of line and know that we can come out of our pit stop in 10th and still have a chance to win, we’re going to pull out of the line and make runs, and we won’t care about the fuel savings. I promise you that.”

At the same time, the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race showcased much better overall racing. The lead kept swapping, and overtaking was not an issue. Many, in fact, claimed that the Saturday race was far more entertaining than the Cup Series race on Sunday.

So even though Bubba Wallace’s chain reaction-causing wreck was covered by the national news, and Hocevar’s maiden win was celebrated throughout the NASCAR sphere, the overall race revealed the poor state of racing in the Cup Series, and the drivers are now demanding improvement.