Edwards' error causes a dozen cars to crash

TALLADEGA, Ala.

Carl Edwards' mistake helped Jimmie Johnson stretch his points lead Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway.

Edwards' bump sent teammate Greg Biffle spinning less than 20 laps from the finish and started a crash that collected 12 cars, including six title contenders.

Edwards and Biffle, who were second and third in points entering the race, did not finish. Edwards placed 29th with Biffle 24th. Johnson's ninth-place finish allowed him to extend his points lead over Edwards to 72 and over Biffle to 77 with six races left. Jeff Burton is the only other driver within 100 points of Johnson. Burton trails Johnson by 99 points.

Edwards took the blame for the incident.

"I was just pushing Greg as hard as I could," Edwards said. "It's my fault, and I apologize to everybody caught up in the wreck. I was worried about the idiots when you come here, and I was the guy that caused that one. "

Biffle said he was not upset with his teammate.

"Carl was helping us," Biffle said. "It's just one of those things. "

Kevin Harvick, who was involved in the crash and finished 20th, wasn't happy with Edwards, who spent most of the day riding in the back to avoid trouble until the end.

" I know that his fans won't be very proud of him sitting back there riding around like a pansy," Harvick said. " But when he got up there and decided to start racing, it caused a big wreck."

Johnson finishes ninth, car comes out unscathed

While title contenders crashed, Johnson came back from a lap down and avoided two major crashes to finish ninth.

"I don't know why our car wouldn't pull up," Johnson said. " I'm glad it stayed running and made it to the end... This is the first time I've had a straight race car leaving Talladega in quite a long time. "

Johnson said he doesn't know how he got through the crashes during the race.

"That last wreck, you can't see coming through (turn) three with the glare and with the smoke and dirt and stuff flying... and I came out without getting a scratch on the car."

Goodyear will further examine tire troubles

A rash of blown tires had Goodyear officials scrambling to find the cause Sunday.

Rick Heinrich, a Goodyear spokesman, said evidence showed that David Reutimann's blown tire, which caused Jeff Gordon to crash, was the result of a puncture.

The cause for the blown tires of Denny Hamlin, Mike Wallace and Brian Vickers was not as clear. The tires would be taken to Goodyear's Akron, Ohio, facility for further examination.

As that takes place, Goodyear conducts a tire test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway today and Tuesday with about a dozen teams to find a way to prevent the tire problems at that track.

Burton finally finds some success at Talladega

Jeff Burton's fourth-place finish was only his second top-five result in his last 14 Talladega starts.... Paul Menard's second-place finish is a career high and his first top-10 finish since 2006.... David Ragan's third-place finish follows his fourth-place finish at Talladega in the spring.

Pit passes

A record 28 different drivers led at least one lap. There were 64 lead changes.... Tony Stewart earned $270,136 for his first win of the season.... Casey Mears didn't have to leave early for the birth of his first child and finished 14th.