NASCAR: McDowell OK after near Head-on Crash

FORT WORTH, Texas -- On Monday, Michael McDowell had a long talk with Jeff Burton about driver etiquette. After walking away from a wild crash during Friday's Sprint Cup qualifying at Texas Motor Speedway, the next conversation between the two may be about safety, something that's near and dear to Burton's heart.

Heading into Turn 1 on his second qualifying lap, McDowell's No. 00 Toyota twitched, then shot up the track as he tried to catch the spin. The rookie slammed nearly head-on into the SAFER barrier, then spun upside down for several hundred yards before the car began a series of at least eight barrel rolls, coming to rest right-side up on the backstretch (watch video).

Autostock

“

That's one of the worst wrecks I've seen, for sure, in a while and I'm not excited I had to participate in it.

”

MICHAEL McDOWELL

McDowell was able to exit the car under his own power and walk away from his destroyed racer, which touched off a roar from the crowd. He was the second car on the track after David Gilliland's No. 38 Ford had engine problems on his run, forcing crews to lay down absorbent material during their cleanup efforts.

"I came off of [Turn 4] on that last lap and it just felt a little bit off," McDowell said. "I went down into [Turn] 1 and I don't know if it was the oil dry or something happened, but it was real unfortunate for those guys. I hate to make a lot of work for the guys back in the shop.

"That's one of the worst wrecks I've seen, for sure, in a while and I'm not excited I had to participate in it."