NASCAR Talladega 2013: Huge wreck on Lap 184 takes Danica Patrick, Kurt Busch out of race

With four laps to go in Sunday’s NASCAR race at Talladega Superspeedway, a multi-car wreck saw Kurt Bush barrel roll and end up on the top of another car.

At the time of the wreck, drivers were running four-wide in a fierce battle for the lead when rookie Ricky Stenhouse tried to squeeze through on the outside lane and made contact with J.J. Yeley to trigger the accident.

Yeley’s car then broke loose and clipped the rear of Busch’s No. 78 machine turning him sideways and causing him to flip where it came down on the top of Ryan Newman.

“We were trying to win the race,” Yeley said. “I got hit in the right-rear quarter (panel). It looked like Stenhouse went to the outside and there wasn’t enough room.”

Danica Patrick, Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer were among those also collected. All involved escaped injury.

A 3-hour, 36-minute delay for rain pushed the finish to the Aaron’s 499 into the night. And as the race was restarted, there were multiple reports of showers hitting the track.

NASCAR wanting to see the race to its conclusion pressed on, even as darkness loomed and without Talladega having lighting around the 2.6-mile oval.

The decision by series officials to continue on was questioned afterward by Newman, who has been involved in similar instances in the past at Talladega and was not pleased that the race was restarted in less than ideal conditions.

“They (NASCAR) can build safer racecars, they can build safer walls but they can’t get their head out of their asses,” Newman said. “That’s no way to restart a race -- running in the dark, running in the rain. They got what they wanted.”