By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow is built to be stable and safe. During qualifying laps for the Sprint Cup race on Friday, it proved to be at least one of these things when rookie driver Michael McDowell got into a gnarly wreck that quickly escalated into a terrifying series of midair barrel-rolls. The kicker? When it was all over, McDowell was able to climb out of the demolished Toyota and wave to the fans before walking to the ambulance under his own power. He was even able to pull off a pretty respectable performance in today's race, which was only his second-ever Sprint Cup start. How's that for crash safety?

Comments

jon
Apr 8, 2008 1:53:23 PM

wow

Theresa
Apr 8, 2008 6:49:07 AM

Watching him walk out of that mess and still being able to smile was Amazing! These drivers owe their safety to the deaths of previous drivers - especially Dale Sr. These tracks Never would have sunk that kind of money into safety walls and the such without the outcry that was heard after Ernhardt died in a wreck that did not look to be that bad.

Bunson
Apr 7, 2008 10:08:27 PM

And automakers have toruble making a 5 star safety minivan... (i know its a tottaly different ball game, but still...)

minimoparfever
Apr 7, 2008 9:18:10 PM

Ironic how the driver of the Aaron's Dream Machine is truly one lucky dog! Hats off to NASCAR for making that survival even a possibility and go MWR for building McDowell a safe race car.

garage510
Apr 7, 2008 6:13:33 PM

The way the driver walked away from the wreck shows that crash safety measures has at least come of age and I guess many are glad about that. Improvements should always be a continuous process.

GTwildfire
Apr 6, 2008 11:42:03 PM

yeah. Funny how they say wear clean underwear in case of an accident.

bewolverine2
Apr 6, 2008 7:42:40 PM

I'M SO GLAD THAT WE'RE LEARNING HOW TO IMPROVE SAFETY WITH EVERY YEAR, I THINK WE'VE LOST ALOT OF GOOD PEOPLE TO LAXED SAFETY FEATURES!
NOW IF THEY CAN JUST KEEP YA FROM FILLIN'YOUR UNDERWEAR WITH SHIT AFTER A WREAK LIKE THAT IT ALL WOULD BE PERFECT!

GTwildfire
Apr 6, 2008 6:44:26 PM

That was just plain ugliness. Didn't have the sound on so I have no idea exactly what his speed was, but it looked like a couple hundred MPH. Overcompensated with oversteer then let up and tried to correct and it was too late.
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He is so lucky he wasn't born 20 years earlier. Even several years ago the wall would have been a hell of a lot harder.