VIDEO: 16-Car Wreck at Coke Zero 400 in Daytona

After getting twice delayed by rain, one wonders if maybe the NASCAR gods were trying to send a sign about the Coke Zero 400 race. Nineteen laps into the Cup Race early Sunday, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got loose out in front of a tightly-crowded pack. When Jeff Gordon tried to maneuver around Stenhouse, assuming a major crash was forthcoming, a collision was triggered: Gordon veered left, Tony Stewart was turned as well, and the result was a wreck that collected 16 cars. And a lot of bad blood.

"We're a quarter of a lap from the competition caution and Stenhouse is going to be a hero," Stewart said. "I don't know what happened to him there, but it took out a bunch of good cars for no reason. I don't know what it is. No matter what I say right now, somebody's going to be mad and somebody's going to disagree with it."

"We had a good head of steam run going toward the lead there and the 33 (Labonte) pulled up in front of us, slowed up just a bit," Stenhouse Jr. said, in his own defense. "I got a little bit loose off the corner, got it saved and was going straight for a little bit, then it looked like the 24 kind of checked up and moved down, thought I was going to spin it out and got into the outside of the 14 and turned him around.

"I hate that it ended this way for all the guys that got tore up race cars," he added. "Definitely not the way we wanted to end this day, or end it this early."

Among those taking damage besides Stenhouse Jr., Gordon, and Stewart were Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick, Marcos Ambrose, Danica Patrick, Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth, Trevor Bayne, Kyle Larson, AJ Allmendinger, Jimmie Johnson, Michael Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Carl Edwards.

You can check out full video of the incident below:

Via: USA Today / Fox Sports