Less than 10 minutes into the final practice session, the right-rear tire blew on the car of five-time Talladega winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. Earnhardt's car hit the wall and five other cars wound up being involved in a chain-reaction pileup.

"It was wild," said David Gilliland, one of those involved in the wreck. "Junior just blew a tire. It just blew up."

Kasey Kahne, David Reutimann, Clint Bowyer and Tony Stewart were also involved in the accident.

Stewart was the only one who was able to continue in the same car. The others had to begin preparing a backup car for the race. No one was injured.

"I just saw tires flying and then smoke," Kahne said. "I didn't know really where to go. I hit it a little bit, but it tore up the front of the car bad enough that we'll definitely need to go to our backup car."

Qualifying is set for Saturday.