Joey Logano ‘Happy To Be Alive’ After Sliding Upside Down At Talladega

Talladega Superspeedway (Talladega, Ala.) — Joey Logano didn’t mince words after spending a couple of minutes upside down on the track waiting for NASCAR crews to methodically turn his car over back on its wheels. “I don’t know … to be frustrated because I wrecked or happy to be alive. And I’m choosing the happy to be alive,” Logano told me and other media outside the track medical center. The Team Penske driver said he was fine after a wreck where he got turned into the wall and turned upside down, sliding hundreds of feet. The accident included a hard hit for Riley Herbst, who appeared OK while having his wrist wrapped as he left the medical center. Logano praised the NASCAR medical team and the car as he emerged uninjured. He got out of his car under his own power soon after it was turned back on its wheels. Medical workers had been talking to him throughout, but he couldn’t communicate with his team as his radio didn’t work and that’s likely because an antenna was damaged as it slid on its roof. His main worry was the fuel that he could see leaking. “I’m OK. I’m fine. I feel 100 percent good to drive home,” Logano said. “Just sometimes that happens. The first one was good [hard hit]. Into the wall and then it went up in the air and thought, ‘Oh sh–.’ “It got pretty quiet there. And the brakes weren’t working anymore, which is a bad sign [as the wheels are off the ground]. It flew for a while and then landing, you just hope not to get hit again because you’re sliding upside-down. The scariest thing is sitting upside down and seeing fuel leak out. “I’ve never felt like I can’t get out of a race car before, and I kind of felt like I couldn’t get out if I had to.” Not a stranger to getting airborne in a race car, Logano was battling among the leaders when he wrecked. He had the car of Ross Chastain, who was a lapped car, in front of him. That didn’t bother Logano, even though he seemed boxed in by Chastain because he didn’t have any Fords to work with him anyway. After that accident, Chastain got the free pass and ended up fourth in the race. “Everyone has a right to go racing,” Logano said. “He’s racing for himself as well. … It wasn’t his fault he wrecked. I don’t know that you can blame it on anyone. It’s just what speedway racing is these days. “It really sucks at times. At times, it’s pretty awesome. And at times you end up on your lid and you say, ‘It sucks.’ I like Martinsville [a short track next week].” He also didn’t blame Carson Hocevar for the shove that put him into the wall. “It’s the end of the race, and Carson’s done a good job pushing me in the right spots and everything,” Logano said. “It just seemed like a lot of action was happening in the tri-oval there and just got a shove just right in the wrong spot, and it shipped me. “I almost had it saved, I thought, and went head on into the fence and had a Ricky Bobby moment at Talladega — more than I would like. It was a long time on my lid. A hell of a ride. Glad it didn’t tumble.”