10 years ago, McDowell would have been a dead man. It's amazing how much safety has improved in NASCAR.

I thought he was dead when I saw this on tv. Shit gave me the shivers. What a hard hit. The car of today and the safer barriers have proven their safety. I hope McDowell has better luck in the race on Sunday. Man he is lucky to be walking around and doin' interviews and only after 15 mins after the wreck, wow.

And now he won the Daytona 500.

For anyone that was still bashing this COT, that has got to silence you. That is the number one reason that car is on the track: safety. Good job NASCAR for the improved safety in our sport and hopefully we can continue to be pro-active so that we can keep our drivers, and even our pit crews, as safe as humanly possible. God was with that kid there.

thanks for posting, my cable got shut off yesterday!

This headon into the wall would have to be the ultimate test in safety testing. He hardly had any scruboff speed before the impact. I'm more surprised the lack of extreme damage from such an impact and tumbles. Glad the driver made it.

Crazy that the most recent comment on this video was posted 6 years ago as of this date, before someone mentioned that this very guy is a Daytona 500 winner.

I was there when he was posting it, we were just sitting in front of the computer/playing gh, then he saw it.. He was frantic, he called his dad over from across the house, got that shit recorded, did a tiny bit of editing, did some nervous beating of his knee.. That's Vanbomstein working for YOU, to let YOU see all the latest in the world of Motorsports. Because at 4 Cunningham(house of vanbomstein), the viewer ALWAYS comes first.

amazing, great capture on the video

Michael McDowell is Unbreakable... What a champ

DAMN! Nascar cars lights us so fast...

i'm shocked it's on here so soon!! i walked in the house from babysitting, turned on the tv, and saw i pile of metal, all i could say was holy shit...then i saw the replay, it gives me the chills. this is a testament to the measures nascar has taken to keep these driver's safe. I hate to compare it to Dale Sr.'s wreck, but this looks about 10x worse than it, and micheal walked away.

for Michael McDowell to walk away from that was absolutely shoking! Props to NASCAR on making these race cars safe. cause he could have been killed in that crash!

I have never heard them give NASCAR the credit for inventing those things, they give credit to NASCAR for making them required. Which for the longest time they weren't.

that car saved his life, and they are right drivers won't be complaining about the car as much as they were

holy shit you got this online fast good job

@alex2xxx Sr's crash was directly head-on into the wall he had little to no forward momentum once he hit and he backed down the track nothing to absorb the energy except the driver sadly. McDowell's crash if you watch again was more of a glancing blow albeit a very hard one he still had a lot of forward momentum that was dissipated first by smacking the wall HARD and then barrel rolling down the track. Still amazes me what they go through and still walk away from now.

Brutal racing and brutal tracks.

even 2 years ago, he probably would have been dead. Thank god that NASCAR has finally cracked down on safety hazards with the SAFER barrier and the COT. They defintately saved a life today.

@pieman5ooo NASCAR did make the right decision to change the car to be like that. The video is the best example of the major changes since it's predecessor (Car of Yesterday) and was utilized to also change the Nationwide to the new generation cars. The Car of Tomorrow made the huge step into driver safety.

I cant believe he just walked away from that and Earnhardt looked like he barely bumped the wall compared to this slam - and yet it killed him.

I don't think nascar would have done any of the changes they have made over the last 7 years if Sr didn't die. It took a star like Sr to die before they started making drastic changes.

who the fuck dislikes this, better yet who would serch this to hate on this, thanks to nascar this guy survied the crash of his life, and meny others have thanks to the improvments nascar has made and still is making.

the view at :49 really puts it into perspective

all i can say and I must say NO DISRESPECT AT ALL Dale Sr. saved another life tonight!

Looks just like Gordon Smiley's crash...shows how far car safety has come.

@josh19852008 yes, this hit was MUCH harder than Dale's... two things saved McDowell... the fact that he his a "safer" barrier, and that he was properly restrained inside the car.

2:17 it sounds like he siad "the best FART....he walks away with a wave.

Oh man...all those left turns sure finally got him!

i remember watching this live.

You don't hear it well on this tape, but the sound the car made when it hit the wall was just as horrifying as the flipping. I've never heard a BOOM that deep, and that was hitting the foam barrier, not concrete.

Because Dale had an open faced helmet. In Dales crash he suffered most of the energy of the crash, but here the car and the new SAFER barriers take most of the force of the impact. Allowing amazing wrecks like this one, but thankfully the drivers walking away. I also think Dales seatbelt broke or become undone somehow.

i wonder which was scarrier 1: Carl Edwards Flip, Talladega 2009 2: Michael McDowell Flip, Texas 2008

Damn those cars are built well

when you watch this impact and compare it to that of what killed dale earnhardt, you realize how far safety has come along since 2001, and thank god for that!

the reason he left un scathed i because of the angle he hit the wall i think his car spun just enough to get passed the critical angle and not a head on collision to the wall. still lucky with no injuries.

the wall didn't kil dale, his head was 'turned' looking at martins car, and the wall 'hyper-extended' his neck. Everything went wroing for dale. and may he rest in peace.

@Weezy10580 That was a last minute thing like 2 or 3 days before the race. So he had hardly any time to gel with the crew or get a feel of the car. Texas is a hard track also.

I'd love to see you drive a 3500 pound car into that corner at nearly 200mph and never spin out. The rear end stepped out on him and he tried to correct but it was too much and it over-corrected his car right into the wall.

@Fyuzseion Amen to that and the safer barrier and improvements to the drivers seat

What's wrong with the steering wheel?

I don't know about that, since he didn't hit the wall at the worst possible angle, and the flipping slowly dissipates the impact.

According to reports, the crash sounded like a cannon shot, heard, in the suites, thankfully, he walked away.

@MrFALLOUT1439 Funny thing about that.... You ever notice how the "Stuck Throttle" problem sprung up only AFTER it made the news?????

first thing u hear is dw saying about the safer barrier. well yea thats a video game type crash and its nuts that he walked away from that, but it was the people in indycar safety that came up with the safer barrier, and the hans device, which would have saved dale earnhardt 9 years ago, when it was available

the funny thing was i was at that race because i live 3 miles from that speedway in justin texas and i saw that crash

That was one hell of a ride...

that was almost the same exact hit that gordon smiley took, without those safer barriers, who knows what would have happened

I never thought about those, but yes you are right.

o m g the c.o.t car has earned my respect after this wreck

is it just me, or do the crowd not even realise michael mcdowell nearly killed himself?

I can't imagine a harder impact.

yea i havent heard what he said about the wreck in a long time, but pretty much everytime theres some crazy crash in nascar or theres heavy impact with the wall someone on that group that includes DW and jimmy spencer (or at least used to, i havent seen that show in years, as you can assume im and indycar fan) gives props to nascar for the safer barriers, hans device, bla bla bla that nascar didnt invent. as for roof flaps, ICS doesnt need roof flaps. and the last death was in 2006, in which...

He sounds more intelligent than some I hear with a thick Brooklyn accent, or Wisconsin.

@M1AShooter72 brakes might of failed simultaneously

@weaverracing96 You are right about the speed, I don't agree with belgref saying rally cars are safer just because the driver in these cars is more central than the driver in a rally and the tracks here are designed with these cars in mind where as rallys are on public roads, so a 150mph rally crash can result in an impact with a tree or something not designed to help disipate the energy of the impact. Given a choice, I'ld rather be in a 180mph nascar crash

Holy shit. And to think that if that happened 10 yrs ago he would have been dead.

"Have you ever, No I have never!"

if i was in dat car i wouldve been like "HOLY CRAP HOLY CRAP DAAAAAAAA OMFG OMFG OMFG"

that is freakin awesome. then the guy just walks away like oh, that sucked.

@TyVulpine I'm not saying they are not excellent drivers but also, don't comment in a fashion that is uninformed. Have you ever raced? The best talent is not always behind the wheel. The most money is often behind the wheel before the best drivers. At high speeds, with those odds at play things happen. Paul Dana is an example of someone who perhaps wasn't ready for where he was.

man, go to mark :51. even the track PA announcer said "WOW".

we still dont know why paul dana didnt slow down after seeing a car spinning well ahead of him (R.I.P. Paul Dana), but he had all the equipment to keep him safe, it was just one of those siuations where ICS couldnt do anything more to prevent that other than slow the car down for him, whereas with dale he chose against a full helmet and a hans device, which both would have contributed to saving his life, belt malfunction or not. And anyway ICS is a whole lot more dangerous, faster, no roof, etc.

You know what this reminds me of? DO A BARREL ROLL!

dude you could hear a huge smack when he hits the wall

@GamingMatt i cant tell if u thought my comment was a dumb one or a good one? lol watching the nationwide race tonght at richmond though, ya i have noticed the changes in the cars, deffently nascar steping up in saftey of the drivers.

the rolling bar save him. god blessed

ouch damn that was rough, glad he just walked away

@M1AShooter72 lol now we know what went wrong at this wreck it all makes sense

That was a hard hit into the wall.

WOOOO JR GOT THE POLE?!?!?!?!

wow. amazing.

Hey Drew!

My observarions:- 1. That was not a 180+ mph (300+ kph) hit, if it was, the driver would have broken his neck, regardless of the amount of protection; 2. Having said that, kudos to the Australian designers of the safety barriers, would have absorbed some of the impact and means that the vehicle and capsule were in a better shape for the driver; and 3. I just don't get oval track. Why don't we see many Americans driving Bathurst, Australian V8's etc. Because they can't!

@jwdundon By Martin, you mean Marlin.

@scottN1980 Yep, look for fatal rally crashes vs fatal nascar crashes. See which turns up more vids. Road racing in general has more deaths. The last death in NASCAR was 2001 (not counting sub series like modifieds. RIP Tom Baldwin). Ashley Cooper got killed in the Australian V8 supercar series pretty recently, and there are always rally deaths to hear about.

Well now we know the Car of Tomorrow is actually the car of tomorrow.

You will also notice that that DW did not give credit to NASCAR for inventing those things, he thanked them for putting them in. Besides NASCAR doesn't own the tracks, its more up to track management to install things like SAFER barriers. NASCAR has also invented things like roof flaps (I want to say Jack Roush invented them, but I am not sure) Besides NASCAR's last death was Dale Earnheart ten years ago. When was Indy car's last death? Dose not seem to long ago.

at least he qualified for the race...

@jonesmic001 what do you mean

To any one who questions the skill of the driver: GOD could not have saved that car doing 190 and having a tire go down.

omg!he just got out of it like nothing!that was amazing!

That was the Grace of God that kept him safe in there.

im glad he is ok..it was a jaw dropping wreck..but the flip i think was cool, unless he would have been hurt...but 1:04 is the best view of the wreck

did he go to a back up?

@belgref Yeah right. I don't recall any rally cars getting to 200 mph, and taking a brutal hit like this. you hear about rally drivers dieing in sub150mph wrecks. This was 180+ and the guy walked away.

i was watching that and was like .........wow. glad hes okay,go junebug

And on the flip side, looks like NASCAR should get all the oil off the track before sending more guys out to qualify

dude that was freekin awsome

@Roushfan5 they have before and i havent seen anything nascar safety related in a long time, so maybe they havent, but admit it they try harder than any other league to seem like they are so smart and have such great drivers. Example: just before the daytona 500 dw was talking up nascar drivers by saying dario came and raced nascar, didnt do so well, then went back to ICS and won a championship, solely on the experience of nascar, however he had won the chamionship the season before nascar too

haha i went tht year but didnt go to qualifying because i thought it would be boring i was wrong haha im glad hes ok :P

I am a certified genius... and a mechanical engineer. Plus I do drive hi-performance test cars. - I have seen 180+ speeds form INSIDE a race car. I also have a degree in sociology, with a minor in psychology.... I don't have to be in the car with Dale, to know whats happened... --you could say understanding the crash is important to me.

i remember watching this i was like :O hes on fire!

@nascar08freak a indy car driver who has been riped a part when he crashed his car hit the wal and stoped in the middle of the rout out the corner an other driver saw him to late and hit him full sppeed over 300mph at the driver compartment

Chuck Norris once did this in his Geo Metro.

holy mother of god that was fucking crazy

@joshjake93 Newman's '03 crash was different in several ways which made it non life-threatening.

oh, come one, where's the blood? A real tribute to American engineering.

that is almost like a NR2003 crash DAMN! wow

THAT HURT