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Early accident at Talladega causes brief race stoppage to clean up debris from 14-car wreck

Associated Press
Published | Updated

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (17), Danica Patrick (10), Cole Whitt (35) and Matt DiBenedetto (83) are involved in a multi-car crash on the back straight during the Talladega 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race at Talladega Superspeedway, Sunday, May 3, 2015, in Talladega, Ala. (AP Photo/Greg McWilliams) (The Associated Press)

Trevor Bayne (6), Landon Cassill (40), Joey Logano (22), Danica Patrick (10) and others are involved in a multi-car crash during the Talladega 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race at Talladega Superspeedway, Sunday, May 3, 2015, in Talladega, Ala. (AP Photo/Greg McWilliams) (The Associated Press)

The Sprint Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway was stopped for 11 minutes Sunday because of multi-car accident.

The accident occurred 47 laps into the race when Paul Menard attempted to pass Trevor Bayne on the outside of a three-wide pack of cars. Kurt Busch was following closely on Bayne's bumper, and the aerodynamics from Menard on the outside and Busch behind him caused Bayne's car to snap around.

The wreck collected 15 cars, including Daytona 500 winner Joey Logano, Kasey Kahne, Kyle Larson and Danica Patrick.

During the red-flag period, one of Justin Allgaier's crew members was ejected by NASCAR for handling a gas can behind the pit road wall without a helmet or protective face cover.