Brad Keselowski snapped Carl Edwards’ two-race winning streak on Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, surviving a near-record number of cautions to notch his second victory of the season and take a firm hold on one of the sixteen spots available in the post-season Chase. Keselowski started seventh and led a race-high forty-six laps, including the final seventeen trips around the sprawling Alabama oval. The last of the day’s ten caution periods unfolded in Keselowski’s rear-view mirror with the checkered flag in sight. The accident along the frontstretch involved seven drivers including Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth. The ten yellow flags were one shy of the Talladega track record of eleven that was set in April 2004. Forty-one of the race’s 188 laps were run under caution, with a pair of major multi-car accidents disrupting the afternoon.

Less than thirty laps from the finish, Kurt Busch tapped Jimmie Johnson to trigger a twenty-one-car melee, more than half the starting field. Twenty laps later, a twelve-car incident on the backstretch took out Kenseth, who had led thirty-nine laps. Earlier, with the race at its halfway point, Chris Buescher took the brunt of a seven-car crash that ended with his Number-34 Ford barrel-rolling three times after contact from Michael Annett. None of the drivers involved in the numerous accidents were seriously injured … Edwards’ hopes for a third straight victory were finally dashed when he blew a right-front tire and collided with Dale Earnhardt Junior, saddling Edwards with a thirty-fifth-place finish … The race ended under caution with Kyle Busch grabbing second place. Austin Dillon, Jamie McMurray and rookie pole sitter Chase Elliott completed the top five.