Scary Jamie McMurray practice crash could be harbinger of wild Talldega race

After what happened during a practice session, one can only wonder what’s in store on Sunday at Talladega.

Fans love it, drivers often dread it. That’s about as succinct a way to sum up racing at Talladega Superspeedway as there is. Restrictor plate racing is always unpredictable and a little more dangerous than at other tracks by virtue of high speeds and tightly packed groups of cars. But there’s just something about Talladega that even sets it apart from Daytona when it comes to things you can’t believe.

One of those happened Friday during a practice session for the GEICO 500. Jamie McMurray and Ryan Newman appeared to make contact, which wouldn’t normally be disastrous.

Except it was Talladega, so this happened:

Thankfully, McMurray was okay, another testament to how today’s NASCAR cars can go through horrific wrecks and keep their occupants safe. He told ESPN that the “the impacts weren’t that bad” but the spinning was, not surprisingly, worrisome.

"You can’t tell what’s up or what’s down, you’re spinning so fast. Honestly, the whole time it was flipping, I was like, ‘Just, please, land on the right way up so I can get out.’"

McMurray also noted that fire is a concern, because they had only run a few laps and his No. 1 Chevrolet had almost a full tank of gas.

Ironically, NASCAR has been doing a lot of work to ensure cars don’t leave the ground after collisions at Talladega, but that didn’t help McMurray on Friday. The undeniable fact is that this was just practice, which leads to inevitable wonder about what Sunday’s race will be like. Each of the last two seasons, the GEICO 500 has featured something scary happening, as Chris Buescher and Matt Kenseth flipped their cars two years ago and A.J. Allmendinger ended up on his roof in 2017.

Cup Series drivers have shown in the past that they can race more cautiously than usual when necessary. It’s not hard to remember races when the announcers predicted chaos that then unfolded with little in the way of on-track incidents. These drivers really are the best at what they do.

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That said, it’s often what’s out of your control at Talladega that turns out to be the most likely to turn into something like what happened to McMurray. That is to say that “The Big One” feels like something that’s lurking as it is many years, and all we can do is simply hope that no one caught up in it goes for a ride like McMurray just did.