TALLADEGA, AL — Connecticut native Joey Logano escaped injury after his No. 22 Ford flipped upside down during a late-race multi-car crash Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama, according to NASCAR.
The incident was documented on NASCAR.com.
Logano, driving for Team Penske, was racing in the high lane on Lap 183 of the YellaWood 500, the eighth race in The Chase presented by Mobil 1, when a chain reaction involving Ross Chastain and Carson Hocevar sent his car spinning, NASCAR reported.
Contact with Chase Briscoe's No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota then sent Logano's Ford airborne and upside down, NASCAR reported.
Logano, who was born in Middletown, climbed out of the car under his own power after safety crews returned it to an upright position.
"It looks like I just got a little push in the wrong spot there," Logano said, according to NASCAR.
He described the moment his car flipped as frightening and thanked NASCAR and its safety crews for their response.
"The car did a great job," Logano said. "The last time I flipped, it was crushed on my head. This time, I don't think anything really caved or crushed at all."
Logano said he was grateful to have escaped the crash.
"There were some vicious hits in that one," he said. "I'm just happy to be alive."
Logano initially was quiet over his team radio after the wreck but later confirmed he was OK. NASCAR reported that the crash disconnected his radios and left him unable to communicate with his team, NASCAR reported.
"I was thinking about my wife," Logano said. "She was probably wigging out on me, but I tried talking to whoever I could, but when I flipped, everything came off out of the pockets there."
Logano said he was disappointed because his team had been in position to contend late in the race, but he was putting the severity of the crash into perspective, NASCAR reported.
"I don't know if I should be mad that I wrecked or happy to be alive," Logano said. "I think I'm more happy to be alive."
The three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion added that he anticipated the possibility of trouble as the race approached its closing laps, NASCAR reported.
"We were in position to do something pretty good there, and it's just the end-of-the-race scenario," Logano said. "You feel it coming. You know it."
He added: "I've seen the cars that are around me, and I was like, 'This is not how I dreamed it up,' but it is what it is."
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