Brian Vickers leads during the AMP Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. (Photo Courtesy of Toyota Motorsports) » More Photos

Ten laps after the Lap 59 restart came the first serious incident. Vickers was running up front, just behind leader Earnhardt when his Red Bull Toyota blew a right-front tire in the trioval, triggering an eight-car wreck that took out Vickers, Martin Truex Jr., David Gilliland, Kasey Kahne, Terry Labonte, Almirola, Jamie McMurray and Skinner. “It just sucks,” said Vickers, who had led 10 laps in the race.

The big wreck brought out a red flag for 17 minutes of track clean up. Once the track went yellow, the leaders all pitted on Lap 71. Earnhardt held the lead ahead Menard, Burton, Kevin Harvick and Juan Pablo Montoya.

The green flew again on Lap 73, only to see a caution again on Lap 81 for yet another tire failure, this one a right rear on Mike Wallace’s Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. That made it three tire explosions before the halfway point.

This time, Kyle Busch led off pit road, in front of Earnhardt, Montoya, Stewart and Kenseth. The green came out on Lap 87 and seven laps later, when the field reached the halfway point, it was a pair of Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas up front, with Denny Hamlin leading Kyle Busch.

But on Lap 99, Hamlin’s right-front tire blew sending his Toyota helplessly into the outside wall in Turn 2. Hamlin was stunned from the heavy impact and had to be helped out of his destroyed car.

Scott Riggs had the lead on the Lap 103 restart and the track remained green until Jeff Gordon lost an engine at Lap 140. The leaders all came down pit road one lap later, with Kyle Busch leading Ragan, Kvapil, Stewart and Johnson. Edwards spun at the exit of pit road, but didn’t hit anything.

The race restarted on Lap 145 and stayed green for 20 laps until Harvick spun at the entrance to Turn 3 after getting a bump from Ragan, who in turn had been hit by Biffle. But no one made any contact with the wall and most of the field came down pit road. At this point, Montoya was out front ahead of Montoya, Mears, Menard, Bowyer and Earnhardt. Twelve lead-lap cars stayed out and led, with Kyle Busch the first car to pit in 13th.

Montoya and Mears pulled out on the Lap 170 restart, with Menard quickly making it a three-way fight for the lead. The lead pack became a seven-car, single-file draft, but on Lap 172, Stewart led a second row forming up on the outside.

The Big One happened on Lap 174, when Biffle got hit by teammate Edwards at the entrance to Turn 3, triggering a huge crash. The incident involved half the contestants in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Wrecked in the crash were Biffle, Edwards, Earnhardt, Kenseth, Harvick, and Kyle Busch — all Chase contestants — as well as Kvapil, Reed Sorenson, Montoya, Dave Blaney and Michael Waltrip.