That said, the NASCAR Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway delivered a terrifying reminder of superspeedway racing's brutal nature, ending under a red flag with just five laps to go after a massive pileup as Motorsport.com reports. Joey Logano found himself upside down in a wild accident that shredded multiple machines and brought safety crews scrambling.
The chaos erupted when Logano, fighting at the sharp end of the field for the race lead, caught a bump in the tri-oval. Losing control, his machine spun up the track following contact from Hocevar, lifting completely off the ground and flipping fully upside down. The No. 22 Team Penske Ford then skidded across the tarmac on its roof, remarkably avoiding any incoming secondary impacts from the trailing pack.
It's like, 'oh no, I'm upside down, this is not a good moment,'
Meanwhile, the rest of the melee claimed a staggering toll. Herbst slammed the outside wall before appearing to lose brakes entirely, taking a frightening, high-speed impact straight into the inside wall. He managed to climb out gingerly, visibly winded. By the time the dust settled on the Lap 183 incident, at least fifteen machines were heavily damaged or destroyed.
The complete list of drivers caught in the wreckage included Logano, Herbst, Hocevar, Cindric, Keselowski, Suarez, Allmendinger, Buescher, Briscoe, Berry, Jones, Stenhouse, Bowman, Zilisch, and Van Gisbergen. Thankfully, Herbst and every other driver involved were evaluated and subsequently released from the infield care center.
Reflecting on the sheer violence of the accident from outside the care center, Logano admitted the surreal nature of the flight. "It's like, 'oh no, I'm upside down, this is not a good moment,'" he said. Praising the structural integrity of the machine compared to past rollovers where the cage collapsed on his head, he added: "The car did a great job. The last time I flipped it, it was crushed on my head. And this time, you know, we didn't see the roll cage crush at all. I appreciate, what NASCAR's done... Yeah, just happy to be alive."
