During qualifying for last weekend's Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway – the seventh round on the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup calendar – Michael McDowell suffered the mother of all shunts in the #00 Aaron's Toyota machine.
The reigning ARCA Rookie of the Year – in only his second weekend as a Sprint Cup driver with Michael Waltrip Racing – was on his second and final qualifying lap when he lost control of his car at more than 180mph on the banked oval, and in attempting to correct the slide he made heavy contact with the retaining wall, before going on to endure a spectacular series of barrel rolls along the track.
It was the biggest crash yet for the new Car of Tomorrow and the barrier took more than an hour to repair, but amazingly not only did McDowell get out of the car unaided and walk away from the wreckage, he then went on to race his back-up car to 33rd place – and second-highest rookie – two days later. The destroyed car has subsequently been taken away for tests.
To see the amazing sequence of events as the accident unfolded,
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![Start of the Checker Auto Parts500 at Phoenix [pic credit: image.net]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/279911.jpg)
