The NASCAR sprint cup race itself will perhaps be remembered for one of the most spectacular crashes in recent memory at the Monster Mile. It happened on lap 32, when Joey Logano’s No. 20 Home Depot Toyota got caught up in traffic coming off Turn 4 and ended up flipping seven times. He came to rest along on the Turn 4 apron and there were several tense moments before the highly-touted rookie climbed out of his car to a large round of applause from the Dover crowd.
Logano was running in the middle of the pack and was approaching Turn 3 when Bobby Labonte’s No. 96 DLP Ford slowed in front of him. When Logano checked up, Tony Stewart’s No. 14 Burger King Chevrolet bumped him in the rear and sent him spinning. Logano slid across the apron before coming back up the banking, where he was hit on the side by Reed Sorenson’s No. 43 Valvoline Dodge, sending him airborne. The car briefly came to rest on the driver’s side before falling back onto its wheels. Robby Gordon and Martin Truex Jr. also were involved in the four-car accident.
“I’m fine, it just really scared the heck out of me,” Logano said upon being released from the infield care center. “I was fine the whole time but I wasn’t sure what happened. They checked up into the corner and it seemed like I got tagged from behind. It just startled me, but I’m fine. It was the wildest ride I’ve ever been on. I’m just happy it landed on its wheels. When it was on its side, that’s what worried me.”
The wreck reduced the Logano’s Toyota to a tangled pile of sheet metal and caused a red flag period that lasted more than 23 minutes.
“It was the wildest ride I’ve ever been on,” Logano said. “It started rolling and I was in there like, ‘Damn, please make this thing stop.’ And it wouldn’t. It just kept going and going. I was fine. It goes to show how safe these cars are.”
