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CUP: McDowell Walks Away From Hellish Crash
Written by: Tom Jensen   
04/04/2008 - 02:31 PM
Fort Worth, Tex.
 
Michael McDowell will be racing the No. 00 MWR Toyota Tundra as of this weekend in the Goody's Cool Orange 500 at Martinsville Speedway. (Matthew Stockman/Getty Images Photo)n ยป More Photos

Michael McDowell might want to buy a lottery ticket soon, because after what happened Friday afternoon at Texas Motor Speedway, it’s clear that the 23-year-old NASCAR Sprint Cup rookie is indeed a very lucky young man.

McDowell in just his second NASCAR Sprint Cup event, had a savage head-on crash during qualifying for the Samsung 500, a crash he walked away from. In fact, he was completely uninjured and lucid afterwards.

The 13th of 46 drivers who attempted to qualify, McDowell said his car felt a little funny during his first of two qualifying laps, possibly because he got into oil put down on the track two cars earlier by David Gilliland’s car.

After qualifying at 182.933 miles per hour in his first lap, McDowell got loose in the entrance to Turn 1 on his second lap. He attempted to correct his slide, but overcorrected and turned hard right into the wall. His car blasted backwards off the wall, went over on its roof, then did at least eight barrel rolls before finally coming to rest at the bottom of Turn 2.

Despite the violent appearance of the crash, McDowell walked away from the crash, a testament to the safety of the design features of NASCAR’s new-generation race car.

“I came off of (Turn) 4 on that first lap and I just felt a little bit off, like something wasn’t right,” McDowell said. “I went down into (Turn) 1, I don’t know if it
was the oil dry or if something happened, but it’s real unfortunate for those guys. I hate to make that much work for the guys back at the shop.”

McDowell was properly appreciative after watching the replay. “Fortunately I’m OK,” he said. “Thank God. I got to see that replay and it wasn’t very good. … Everyone back at the shop who puts the seats in and making these cars safe, that’s one of the worst wrecks I’ve seen for sure in awhile. I’m not excited I had to participate in it, but we’ll pull the backup out and we’ll be fine. . … For me to walk away from that wreck right there is unbelievable. I’ll count my blessings tonight and thank God for this opportunity to walk away from that wreck.”

Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the President of the National Motorsports Press Association. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to

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