This paper proposes a Multi-relay Cooperative Automatic Repeat ReQuest protocol (MC-ARQ) for IEEE 802.11 based wireless networks. The proposed distributed relay selection scheme not only selects the best relays but also solves the collision problem among multiple contending relays, by sorting the relays in the network according to their instantaneous channel quality with the destination node. No prior information or explicit signaling among relay nodes is required. Both analytical and simulation results show that significant benefits can be achieved with the MC-ARQ protocol, compared with both the recently proposed PRCSMA scheme and the original non-cooperative DCF scheme.