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In Wild NASCAR Crashes, 'You're Just A Passenger'

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By TONY FABRIZIO, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 11, 2007

NASCAR race cars, like airplanes, are designed to move forward through the air. The bodies are sleek for low drag, yet they are equipped with a splitter and a wing (or spoiler), that 'grab' the moving air to create downward force on the wheels. But when a race car gets turned sideways or backward during a wreck, the air and other gravitational forces can cause it to go airborne, flip or raise up on its nose.

The sight of a car airborne and out of control can be spectacular, but it is a dreadful experience for the driver. Last weekend at Talladega, three NASCAR drivers described what it is like to be involved in such a terrifying ride (all three can be viewed on youtube.com):

•Rusty Wallace (retired driver, current ABC/ESPN analyst) on a 1993 crash at Talladega after contact by Dale Earnhardt, when his car barrel-rolled wildly through the infield grass at the start-finish line: 'It was the worst wreck I had in my life. I remember I got up in the air and it got real quiet. Then the car started pirouetting and it came down, and when it hit the ground, I had my hand on the wheel and it broke my wrist. When it did that I blacked out. Then I woke up in a helicopter on the way to Birmingham, Ala.. I remember getting knocked sideways, and I remember in slow motion wondering, 'why is my hand off the wheel in the air?' And then later, I found out I broke it and didn't know it.'

•Elliott Sadler on a 2003 crash at Talladega, during which his car launched like a rocket, spun like a top and came down and flipped (he had another scary crash at Talladega in 2004): 'If you know you're going to get into 'the big one,' I kind of crawl up into the fetal position, because you don't know how many hits you're going to take. There's nothing really you can do after it starts. Same way with flipping, you're just a passenger. Talladega is definitely the most dangerous race we race the whole year, because we're so much on top of each other the whole time, and when you're in the big wreck, you hope you don't get hit too many times. You get through it and you do you do this little checklist: You feel all your limbs, make sure they're still attached and go from there.'

•Clint Bowyer on the last-lap crash in this year's Daytona 500 in which his car turned over and slid across the start-finish line on its roof with flames pouring over the windshield: 'There are so many things that are going through your mind, and so quick. First thing, you think you're fine, and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, you're upside down. ... You get that breath and then you're sliding upside down and you're thinking, 'man there's a lot of cars behind us. When we hit the grass, are we going to start flipping?' Those are the ones that hurt people - when you see the guys hook the grass and start barrel-rolling and tumbling end-over-end.'

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