News Article

Joey Logano goes for a wild ride on the high banks of the Monster Mile

September 27, 2009
Brian Smith

Click here for select shots of Logano's wild ride from Getty Images.
Click here to view a video clip of the incident.

Logano's violent crash brought out an early red flag. He walked away uninjured. Photo by Getty Images

The Monster Mile has a reputation for chewing up race cars. But not in recent memory has the track seen a wreck like the one it saw early in Sunday’s AAA 400.

It happened on lap 32, when Joey Logano got caught up in traffic approaching Turn 3 and ended up flipping seven times. He came to rest along the inside of the apron in Turn 4, 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 headed into Turn 4 when Bobby Labonte slowed in front of him. When Logano checked up, Tony Stewart's No. 14 Burger King Chevrolet bumped him in the rear and sent the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota spinning. Logano slid across the apron in Turn 3 before coming back up the banking, where he was hit on the side by Reed Sorenson, sending him airborne. The car briefly came to rest on the driver’s side before falling back onto its wheels.

“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 No. 20 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.”