RICHMOND, Va. -- Patrick Carpentier got out of his car, helmet on, then circled the machine as it sat in Turn 3 completely mangled. He thought the Big One everyone spoke of was only limited to Daytona or even Talladega, site of last week's Cup Series race.

Unfortunately for Carpentier, and to some degree at least 10 others, the Big One came to Richmond this week, too.

On Lap 229 of Saturday night's Crown Royal 400, J.J. Yeley's car was brushed in the rear by Carl Edwards as the pack raced down the backstretch. Yeley's car turned into the wall, creating an accordion effect behind him that ended with Carpentier getting spun head-on into the inside wall and then T-boned by Kurt Busch (watch video).

"It was a pinball ride," Carpentier said. "I mean, down the backstretch I saw the crash happening. I was trying to go to the inside to avoid it, slowing down, and I think I got hit from behind, spun around and then hit the inside rail, almost accelerated back to corner three and got into the cars and everybody got into me."

The multi-car accident clogged up the racing surface directly in front of the leaders, presenting a smoke screen for then-leader Denny Hamlin. He got his car slowed down, but many of the trailers couldn't avoid the mess. Kurt Busch locked his front wheels trying to miss Carpentier's No. 10 Dodge sitting in the middle of the speedway.

"Things happen so fast, you don't know where to go," Busch said. "The 10 car was on the inside spinning around and he ricocheted back up into the group of us. I had my front brakes all locked up. I had nowhere to go."

David Gilliland said it was indeed a flashback to the threat that is usually limited to high-speed, restrictor-plate races.

"I was telling the guys that it was the Big One here at a three-quarter-mile track," Gilliland said. "That's what it felt like in the car, too."

Debris and fluid was scattered all across the corner, forcing NASCAR to red flag the race for 21 minutes, 47 seconds.

Aside from Carpentier, Busch got the worst damage as his car was hauled off on a flat bed with a crushed-in nose. Others receiving significant damage were Matt Kenseth, Juan Montoya, Jeff Burton and defending race winner Jimmie Johnson.

While the field sat still on the backstretch, Johnson pulled his car to his pit stall. Although the crew couldn't work on his car, they sat patiently with tires in place and a hammer waiting.

Johnson was one of the fortunate ones. He returned to the track, sans hood and fender, to make laps and gain positions on the rest of the casualties from the crash. Unofficially, he finished 30th and dropped two spots to seventh in the standings.

Carpentier, Busch and Gilliland weren't as lucky. They loaded up as the last three finishers in the 43-car field.

Gilliland fell two positions to 20th in points. Busch dropped four positions in the standings to 24th after his ninth consecutive race of finishing outside of the top 10.

Gilliland said it's a product of tight racing, something that's not specific to any racetrack.

"Everybody is so close with this new car," Gilliland said. "You can see it in qualifying and everybody is running so close together that it produces the same thing on the racetrack. Everybody is on top of each other and when something happens like that on a track like this, there's just nowhere to go and everybody gets a little of it."