WATCH: Jeff Gordon Talks About Ryan Blaney’s Photo Finish at Talladega

NASCAR is notorious for its multi-car crashes, colloquially known as ‘The Big One’. At the GEICO 500 race at Talladega, there were at least 13-14 cars nose-to-tail or side-by-side on the home stretch. Obviously, a massive wreck was definitely on the cards. The worst part was that this was the final lap on the run to the line, and it happened, though on a smaller scale. Now, NASCAR legend Jeff Gordon broke down the incident and the fact that Ryan Blaney survived and won with a photo finish.

On the run to the line, Blaney had a car’s length between himself and the pack. Unfortunately, the slipstream was really powerful and dragged everyone to Blaney’s tail. Then, when the number 20 got up alongside him, they touched, and the #20 car careened into the #38 car.

From that point onwards, pandemonium ensued as cars began spinning, but Ryan Blaney and Ricky Stenhouse Jr escaped. From there, it was a drag race to the line, with Blaney just pipping Stenhouse Jr to the line. Meanwhile, third place went to Aric Almirola, though he crossed the line backward in the middle of a spin.

“Just trying to block, block the best we could,” Blaney said. “Block the top, block the bottom … just beating and banging to the line.”

What did Jeff Gordon say about the photo finish?

Gordon noted that the #12 car of Blaney came very close to losing it, especially with Stenhouse on his left. He also said that everyone was lucky to survive with two cars in the wall and Almirola sent spinning into 3rd.

All in all, it was a frantic finish, and Blaney would be right in saying that it was his toughest battle. Mere thousands of a second separated the two leaders at the finish line, and an emotional Blaney dedicated the win to his friend, Bubba Wallace.