NASCAR Sprint Cup Qualifying

COramprat · Apr 4, 2008

NASCAR Sprint Cup Qualifying crash

Anyone see Micheal McDowells qualifying crash in the Cup Series?

He came out OK...no injuries but man it was bad.

http://www.nascar.com/video/cup/2008/04/04/cup.tex.quals.mcdowell.nascar/index.html?MostPopular

FORT WORTH, Texas -- On Monday, Michael McDowell had a long talk with Jeff Burton about driver etiquette. After walking away from a wild crash during Friday's Sprint Cup qualifying at Texas Motor Speedway, the next conversation between the two may be about safety, something that's near and dear to Burton's heart.

Heading into Turn 1 on his first qualifying lap, McDowell's No. 00 Toyota twitched, then shot up the track as he tried to catch the spin. The rookie slammed nearly head-on into the SAFER barrier, then spun upside down for several hundred yards before the car began a series of at least eight barrel rolls, coming to rest right-side up on the backstretch.

McDowell was able to exit the car under his own power and walk away from his destroyed racer, which touched off a roar from the crowd. He was the second car on the track after David Gilliland's No. 38 Ford had engine problems on his run, forcing crews to lay down absorbent material during their cleanup efforts.

"I came off of [Turn 4] on that last lap and it just felt a little bit off," McDowell said. "I went down into [Turn] 1 and I don't know if it was the oil dry or something happened, but it was real unfortunate for those guys. I hate to make a lot of work for the guys back in the shop.

"That's one of the worst wrecks I've seen, for sure, in a while and I'm not excited I had to participate in it."

Seeing the accident on television replay, McDowell himself seemed awed and impressed by his escape -- and used the word "mad" to describe his emotions while the crash was unfolding.

"I told the guys, 'Man, this thing feels really tight. I'm going to run another lap,'" he said. "Then I got down in there and it just started to pull right on me. I tried to gather it up and as soon as I turned back to the right, the front tires hooked up and it started rolling down from there. I didn't lose consciousness, so I felt every roll down the hill.

"I thank the guys back in the shop. They make these cars extremely safe. They spend the extra time padding everything. For me to walk away from that wreck, right there, is unbelievable."

Tony Stewart was watching replays of the incident on the speedway's video screens.

"I'm real curious to see the data that they logged from that," Stewart said. "Because, live, that was the hardest hit I've ever seen anybody take. That was a pretty impressive crash. It was just good to see him get out and walk around. That makes you look at what NASCAR's done and say that they're doing a good job of doing what they're doing with the [new car] and the SAFER barriers.

"We've got a lot of people to thank today because of the hard work and the hours that we all don't know about, to take an accident like that and watch him get out and walk to the ambulance."

Qualifying was delayed as NASCAR president Mike Helton, Sprint Cup director John Darby and track crews assessed the damage to the steel barrier, which was bowed heavily by the impact.

McDowell made his Sprint Cup debut last week at Martinsville and finished 26th after a late-race incident with Jamie McMurray cost him two laps. McDowell made his Nationwide Series debut at Fort Worth last season, starting 17th and finishing 20th.
Click to expand...

CajunlostinCali · Apr 4, 2008

Saw that. Kid was dead in a car 10 years ago with the same crash. Adam Petty, Earnhardt died in lesser crashes. It wasn't the roll overs so much as the impact. He hit nasty, walked away and his parents are still locked in the bathroom. I have believed in the new car for just this reason. He was clocked at 165 the second before impact, just plain ugly. Kid is gonna race Sunday in a brand new back up!

This McDowell kid is for real, I mean what he did in Martinsville last weekend AND in his young development, kids don't do. :nope: He got huge at-a-boys from some quality veterans and top of that list was Jeff Burton. This kid is going places. JB could not have spoken any more eloquently on his behalf, but then again thats JB.

Not many know but Dale Earnhardt had Jeff Burton hand picked to take over the 3 before he died. Dale died, the next season JB loses his sponsor and after the second race with a white hood he was signing a contract with RCR. Burton finished that season after 17 races driving a wet noodle for Childress. Despite his finishes in the last two chases, I am confident he will be a champion some day. He has not been outside the top 12 in over 70 races.

BigWee_TEAMKATT · Apr 5, 2008

That was one of the nastiest hits I have seen in quite some time. You are right Cali. The rollovers were secondary. That initial slam against the wall was brutal to watch, even though we all know he made it out okay.

qball316 · Apr 6, 2008

The hit compressed the safer barrier completely! This new car is amazingly safe. All but the "greenhouse" was desintergraged after all those barrell roles.

COramprat · Apr 6, 2008

I hate to think what would have happened without the Safer barrier. That and the HANS probably saved his life.

Log in or Sign up

NASCAR Sprint Cup Qualifying

COramprat Simma Da Na

CajunlostinCali Booger Eatin Moron

BigWee_TEAMKATT Victory for LSU!!!

qball316 Founding Member

COramprat Simma Da Na

Share This Page