The Big One (NASCAR)

The Big One (NASCAR)

The Big One is a phrase describing any crash involving roughly six or more cars in NASCAR stock car racing.

Though multi-car pileups have occurred at nearly every NASCAR track, the term is most commonly used to describe large multi-car Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series accidents at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway. Less frequently, the term is applied to multi-car wrecks in the Truck and ARCA series accidents at these tracks, and when they raced there, the Dash Series. The first incident recognized as a "Big One" occurred during the 1990 Pepsi 400.

The four restrictor plate races at Daytona and Talladega are the most vulnerable to pileups. The Sprint Unlimited and Budweiser Duel are also held at Daytona (during the Speedweeks preseason event which leads up to the Daytona 500) but their smaller fields mean less risk of pileups. They occasionally also happen during practice sessions, and in at least one instance, a test session. Dover International Speedway is also a place where cars frequently pile up, because of tight areas of the track. Some mile and a half tracks like Texas Motor Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway have seen "big ones", and they are also known to occur at Phoenix International Raceway, usually on restarts because of outside and inside walls on the frontstretch. At Darlington Raceway, the track's rough surface has been said to cause multi-car wrecks.