Cleetus McFarland and Tony Stewart saw their Talladega Truck Series days end on Lap 17, when a multi-truck wreck ended Stage 1 early, and the whole things was caught on video.
The wreck knocked two of the field’s most recognizable drivers out of the Love’s RV Stop 225 and reshuffled the order ahead of a Stage 2 restart.
Truck Series drivers were 17 laps into the 85-lap, 226.1-mile Love’s RV Stop 225 at Talladega Superspeedway, the fifth race of the seven-race Chase. Ty Majeski started on the pole, and McFarland, making his third Truck start of 2026, rolled off 24th.
McFarland appeared to have avoided injury. Fox Sports reporter Bob Pockrass reported that he was the first driver out of the infield care center at Talladega.
It was great. But we held it out, and then a massive wreck in front of me. There’s trucks going everywhere. And I got slowed down. I was rolled up, thought I was good, and then I got tapped in the back left as I was coming down the track,” McFarland told reporters after he emerged from the care center. “Probably my fault. And I just went over and crushed the nose of my truck, and my day is short.”
Corey LaJoie, Kris Wright, and Stewart Friesen were also checked in the care center and released, according to Pockrass. Wright took a “hard hit,” Pockrass reported, but “he said he is OK.”
One fan, Big Willy at the Track, caught the whole wreck on video.
McFarland and Stewart Caught in Talladega Wreck
“I thought I was going to dodge the accident,” McFarland said. “I thought I was totally good, and then just out of nowhere, I just got smacked in the back left. And I haven’t seen it, so I don’t know exactly what I did to cause it.”
Stewart Friesen’s No. 52 Halmar Friesen Racing Toyota suffered a flat tire and spun in front of the field near Turn 2. It was the third truck to lose a tire in two laps. That fueled speculation about debris on the track.
The spin collected Stewart’s No. 25 Kaulig Racing Ram, Corey Lajoie’s truck and several others. McFarland, driving the No. 4 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet, spun on his own while trying to avoid the main wreck and hit the inside wall hard.
“You have got to be kidding me! I’m fine. I’m just p****d off dude. … It’s my fault,” McFarland said on his team radio, according to the audio posted online.
McFarland entered the race with a simple plan. He called his six-lap Daytona debut “pathetic” before the race and said he only wanted to finish at Talladega with the truck intact.
Stewart and McFarland both left the race. Andres Perez de Lara’s day also ended.
No injuries were reported in the immediate aftermath. McFarland said he was fine, and no infield care center or transport alerts surfaced. Official updates will come from NASCAR and team channels.
NASCAR streamed McFarland’s full onboard camera on its YouTube channel. Reporter Jeff Gluck wrote that about 17,000 viewers were watching live early in the race. No concurrent count from the moment of the crash has surfaced.
Talladega Stage Rule and Truck Series Race Fallout
A rule NASCAR adopted in August for all three national series ended the stage on the spot, according to Racing News. A caution inside the final 10 laps of Stage 1 or Stage 2 makes that stage official. The leader gets the checkered flag under yellow, and the cleanup that follows doubles as the stage break.
Stage 1 was scheduled to end on Lap 20, so the Lap 17 caution fell inside the window. NASCAR red-flagged the race on Lap 18 for cleanup. Giovanni Ruggiero’s No. 17 TRICON Garage Toyota led at the time and took the stage win. The unused Stage 1 laps shift to Stage 2.
Kaden Honeycutt still leads the Chase standings. Layne Riggs trails by 42 points, Christian Eckes by 121, Chandler Smith by 126 and Ty Majeski by 141.
The race continues on FS1, with Stage 2 restarting once crews clear the track.
Massive NASCAR Talladega Truck Crash Caught on Video: Watch What Happened