TALLADEGA, Ala. — They are the kind of crashes that teeter between horrifying and spectacular. That you want to turn away from but struggle to do so. Unfortunately, these crashes are common in NASCAR — a car will get airborne, often tumbling wildly, end-over-end.
Looking back now, Chris Buescher can laugh, at least a little, about the two occasions he flipped over, even though it’s an experience a driver never wants to encounter. The first time came during a 2016 race at Talladega Superspeedway where his car rolled multiple times before landing on its wheels. The second crash, in 2022, ended differently as his car came to a stop upside down after rolling through the infield at Charlotte Motor Speedway, essentially leaving him stuck in the car for several minutes before rescue crews could extract him.
“I’m afraid of flying in general, I’m a little more so afraid of flying in a race car, so it’s not something to have on my bucket list,” said Buescher, who drives for RFK Racing. “Unfortunately, I have two under my belt. I’m like a quarter of the way to my pilot’s license at this point is what I figure. Maybe that will overcome my fear, but I want to do the rest of it in a real airplane and not in race cars.”
That Buescher can have a sense of humor about the whole thing is welcome, as a car getting airborne is a scary sight that immediately sparks concerns about a person’s well-being. Thankfully, NASCAR has not had a fatality in a national series race since 2001. Nonetheless, it doesn’t diminish the fact that these types of crashes can be terrifying. And not just for those inside the car.
As Corey LaJoie’s car lifted off the ground during a race at Michigan in August, back home in North Carolina his 4-year-old son was sitting on the couch watching the frightening crash unfold. He saw his dad’s car flip onto its roof, skid for several hundred yards, then barrel roll after catching the transition from asphalt to grass.
“He instantly got super anxious, like he was going to throw up,” said LaJoie, a driver for Rick Ware Racing, who was uninjured. “That’s when you start thinking, ‘Oh, your kids are invested and they know when dad takes a tumble.’ So I had to FaceTime him as soon as I got changed and told him that dad was OK. But, yeah, it’s part of the job, and we talked about it and why I do it and why I want to keep coming back.”
A week after LaJoie’s crash, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Josh Berry endured a similar-looking accident where his car flipped onto its roof and then skidded — except unlike LaJoie, Berry’s car slid into the inside retaining wall, nose first. Berry was also uninjured.
In those instances, NASCAR took the drivers’ cars back to its research and development center in Concord, N.C., to investigate why they got airborne and what can be done to prevent such accidents from occurring. From those crashes, NASCAR has instituted several modifications to the car in advance of Sunday’s playoff race at Talladega, not only NASCAR’s biggest oval but also its most foreboding. The changes include a rocker skirt added to the bottom of the car, extending the right-side roof rails by 2 inches, and fabric added to the right-side roof flap.
But while NASCAR is ever diligent in finding ways to keep cars on the ground, the reality is that it’s an element of big-time stock car racing that likely will never go completely away regardless of the time and energy devoted. The reasons why cars get airborne can vary, but it mostly centers around aerodynamics — at such high speeds, the air can react with a spinning car and sometimes lift it off the ground.
What often gets lost amid the sight of a car bouncing off the ground, sending parts and pieces flying off, is that these accidents tend to be less impactful on a driver’s body than, say, slamming into a wall, where the energy of the collision is often transferred more directly to the driver.
“Obviously, you want to keep the cars on the ground; I know that it’s a big goal,” said Michael McDowell, driver for Front Row Motorsports. “But it’s not the worst thing in the planet when they roll.”
Although cars getting airborne tends to occur more frequently on bigger, faster tracks like Michigan, Daytona, Pocono and Talladega, these types of accidents can happen anywhere. Joey Logano, driver for Team Penske, was involved in a crash at a one-mile track where his car barrel-rolled several times; McDowell walked away from a harrowing crash on a 1.5-mile track where he hit the wall with such force it caused his car to flip.
“You’re usually not worried about it until you’re in it, and usually even that’s delayed,” McDowell said. “Like, I’ve been in some bad ones where you’re like, ‘Oh yeah, this is going to hurt.’”
What stood out to some drivers who’ve been in airborne crashes is the eerie silence within the cockpit, combined with how everything seems to slow down.
“I hate ‘Talladega Nights,’ I hate that movie, but it is strange the amount of time you have to think and the amount of silence that is in the race car when it goes airborne,” Buescher said, referencing a scene from the 2006 Will Ferrell film that depicts a car flipping.
Said Kyle Larson, driver for Hendrick Motorsports: “I wouldn’t say slow motion, but slower than what it looks like at real speed.”
Ryan Blaney knows he’s fortunate. It’s been 14 years since the defending Cup Series champion and Team Penske driver flipped upside down. He’s reminded of this whenever he sees a bad crash, as such videos tend to pop up on YouTube or his Instagram feed. The last he flipped was during a late-model race in 2010.
Does Blaney think he’s overdue to be in a crash where his car takes a tumble?
“I f—ing hope not,” he says, laughing.
(Top illustration: Daniel Goldfarb / The Athletic; photos: Jerry Markland / Getty Images, Alan Marler / Sporting News / Getty Images)
