Rookie OK After Wild Ride

DOVER, Delaware (AP) - Joey Logano skidded down the track, shot straight back up and into the wall, then had his No. 20 T-boned by Reed Sorenson.

Then came the flips. Eight times in all, dangerously barrel-rolling across Dover International Speedway’s concrete track before landing on its side for a brief moment and tipping over to rest on its wheels. Logano’s father ran to the infield care center to check on his son, but the accident looked worse than the final result.

Logano, only 19, was shaken, but otherwise fine.

“It just really scared the heck out of me,” Logano said Sunday. “I haven’t seen a replay yet. I’m not sure I want see a replay. I started rolling and I was like, ‘Damn, please make this thing stop.’ And it wouldn’t. It just kept going and going.”

Logano appeared to get squeezed between Bobby Labonte and his former Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Tony Stewart. Labonte checked up and No. 96 clipped the No. 20 on the nose. Logano checked up and was tapped from behind by Stewart. That sent Logano sliding up-and-down the track like a yo-yo, collecting Sorenson, Martin Truex Jr. and Robby Gordon.

“Wish I saw that coming,” Stewart said. “Don’t know how to say sorry enough to Joey. I didn’t anticipate it coming, and I drilled right through him.”

Race winner Jimmie Johnson had no idea Logano was in the accident. Like any race fan, he couldn’t wait to go watch a replay.

“That’s exciting,” Johnson said. “I can’t wait to see the clip.”

The race was red-flagged for 23 minutes. All the drivers checked at the infield care center were relieved to hear Logano escaped the wreckage fine.

“It was the wildest ride I’ve ever been on,” Logano said. “You can’t go on a roller coaster any worse than that.”

His car reduced to scrap metal, Logano’s race was done. Labonte finished 23rd, Truex 33rd, and Gordon 34th. Stewart had nothing more than some cosmetic damage on the No. 14 and the Chase driver finished ninth.

“I’m just happy it landed on its wheels,” Logano said. “The good lord was with me on that one.”