Walked Away
When the Wreck Looked Fatal and Somebody Forgot to Tell the Driver
Every racing crash looks impressive when somebody puts it in slow motion and adds dramatic music.
That isn’t what this page is about.
Walked Away is reserved for the other kind—the wreck where the race car ceased looking like a race car, the announcers stopped talking for a moment, and everybody watching had the same thought: nobody could have survived that.
Then somebody moved.
Sometimes the driver really did climb out and walk away. Sometimes the safety crew carried him out, surgeons put him back together, and months of rehabilitation followed. The title is shorthand. The requirement is that survival itself is a substantial part of the story.
The search begins with the same 1911-to-present period used for Those We Lost, but this is not a catalog of every hard crash suffered by a famous driver. Racing produces too many of those. The wreck has to clear a considerably higher bar: tremendous speed, fire, flight, massive destruction, an extraordinary impact, an unusual sequence of events, or injuries that make the eventual recovery difficult to believe.
One wreck gets one story. When several drivers were involved, they stay together instead of making everybody read the same accident twice.
And no, luck does not get all the credit. Sometimes it deserves plenty. But cages, belts, helmets, fuel cells, better barriers, head restraints, cockpit protection and very good rescue crews have turned a remarkable number of funerals into hospital bills.
1940–1949
1949
Duke Nalon — Indianapolis 500
May 30, 1949
AAA — Indianapolis 500 — Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indiana
What Happened: Duke Nalon started from the pole in the brutally powerful front-drive Novi and led the first 23 laps. Entering Turn Three, trouble in the rear axle sent the car backward into the wall. It scraped along the concrete while sparks ignited escaping fuel, turning one of the fastest cars at Indianapolis into a moving fire.
Nalon was still inside it.
How He Walked Away: Nalon managed to escape while suffering serious burns. The injuries kept him away from Indianapolis in 1950 and could easily have ended the career right there.
After the Wreck: Nalon returned in 1951, climbed back into another Novi and promptly put it on the Indianapolis pole at a new four-lap record speed.
Career Context: Nalon was already an accomplished sprint-car racer and one of the men most closely associated with the spectacular Novi. His third-place finish in the 1948 Indianapolis 500 remains the best finish ever recorded by one of the famous machines.
1950–1959
1951
Lee Wallard — Reading Fairgrounds
June 3, 1951
AAA Sprint Car — Reading Fairgrounds Speedway, Pennsylvania
What Happened: Four days after winning the Indianapolis 500, Lee Wallard was back in a sprint car at Reading. On the final lap, the car caught fire. Instead of simply abandoning it in front of a packed grandstand, Wallard fought the burning machine to a safer stopping point before getting himself out.
The price was terrible. He suffered extensive burns over much of his body and required months of hospitalization and repeated skin grafts.
How He Walked Away: Technically, Wallard did not stroll away from this one. He survived it. His recovery was long and the damage permanent. He attempted to return to Indianapolis later, but the loss of strength and tissue from the burns made serious competition impractical.
Career Context: Wallard had just dominated the 1951 Indianapolis 500, leading 159 of 200 laps and becoming the first driver to average more than 125 mph for the full distance. Four days later, the career of the reigning Indianapolis winner was essentially over.
1960–1969
1961
Lee Petty — Daytona
February 24, 1961
NASCAR Grand National — Daytona 500 qualifying race — Daytona International Speedway, Florida
What Happened: Lee Petty and Johnny Beauchamp tangled during the second Daytona 500 qualifying race. Both cars went over the guardrail and tumbled outside the racing surface. Petty’s Plymouth was demolished badly enough that photographs of the wreck look more like a scrapyard inventory than something that had contained a driver moments earlier.
How He Walked Away: Petty suffered a collapsed lung and numerous fractures and spent approximately four months in the hospital. At 46 years old, the injuries effectively ended his full-time driving career.
He survived long enough to watch something considerably larger grow from the little family racing operation he had started. His son Richard did rather well with it.
Career Context: Lee Petty was NASCAR’s first three-time premier-series champion and winner of the inaugural Daytona 500 in 1959. The crash removed one of NASCAR’s original giants from regular competition but not from the sport.
1962
Stirling Moss — Goodwood
April 23, 1962
Formula One — Glover Trophy — Goodwood Circuit, England
What Happened: Stirling Moss crashed his Lotus heavily during the Glover Trophy at Goodwood. The impact left one of the greatest drivers in racing history unconscious and critically injured.
How He Walked Away: Moss remained in a coma for roughly a month and endured a long recovery. He eventually regained his health and later tested himself in a race car, but decided that the effortless precision that had defined his driving was no longer there. He retired rather than race at something less than the standard he demanded of himself.
Career Context: Moss won 16 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix and an extraordinary collection of sports-car and road races without ever winning the World Championship. That statistic says considerably more about championships than it does about Stirling Moss.
The crash did what Fangio, Ascari and the rest of the world’s best drivers had spent years trying to do: it finally stopped him.
1963
Marvin Panch — Daytona
February 14, 1963
Sports-car testing — Daytona International Speedway, Florida
What Happened: Marvin Panch was testing an experimental Ford-powered Maserati sports car at Daytona when the car crashed, overturned and caught fire. Panch was trapped inside while flames surrounded the wreck.
Several men nearby ran toward the fire instead of away from it. Among them was Tiny Lund, who helped pull Panch from the burning car.
How He Walked Away: Panch survived serious internal injuries and severe burns, but he obviously was not going to drive the Wood Brothers Ford in the Daytona 500 a few days later.
So the Wood Brothers put Lund in it.
Tiny Lund—the fellow who had just helped drag their driver out of a burning sports car—went out and won the 1963 Daytona 500.
After the Wreck: Panch returned to NASCAR and kept winning. His final victory came in one of the sport’s major races, the 1966 World 600 at Charlotte.
Career Context: Panch was already the 1961 Daytona 500 winner. Lund and the other rescuers received Carnegie Medals for their part in saving him.
1965
A. J. Foyt — Riverside
January 17, 1965
NASCAR Grand National — Motor Trend 500 — Riverside International Raceway, California
What Happened: Late in NASCAR’s season-opening race at Riverside, A. J. Foyt’s Ford lost its brakes. The car left the road course, plunged into a trackside ditch and flipped violently through a cloud of dirt.
The wreck was bad enough that people at the scene initially feared Foyt was dead.
How He Walked Away: Foyt was very much alive, although seriously injured. He recovered and returned to racing instead of taking the hint.
After the Wreck: Most of the accomplishments that made Foyt untouchable were still ahead. He won the 1967 and 1977 Indianapolis 500s, the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans with Dan Gurney, and the 1972 Daytona 500, among plenty of other victories.
Career Context: Foyt became the first four-time Indianapolis 500 winner and remains the only driver to have won Indianapolis, Daytona and Le Mans.
Apparently one form of racing was not enough opportunity to get hurt.
1969
Mario Andretti — Indianapolis
May 1969
USAC — Indianapolis 500 practice — Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indiana
What Happened: Andretti was practicing in one of Lotus’s radical four-wheel-drive Type 64 Indianapolis cars when the machine crashed heavily and burned. Andretti escaped with facial burns, but the expensive and much-discussed Lotus program suddenly looked considerably less attractive.
How He Walked Away: Andretti’s injuries were not enough to keep him out of the race. The Lotus was.
After the Wreck: Andretti switched back to the much more conventional Brawner Hawk, qualified second with his burned face still healing, and then won the 1969 Indianapolis 500.
Career Context: It became Andretti’s only Indianapolis 500 victory, although his eventual résumé also included the Formula One World Championship, Daytona 500, Sebring and just about everything else worth arguing over.
What Changed: The crash helped end the Lotus Type 64’s Indianapolis effort before any of the cars started the race.
1970–1979
1970
Don Garlits — Lions Drag Strip
March 8, 1970
AHRA — Grand American final — Lions Drag Strip, California
What Happened: Don Garlits was sitting behind the engine and transmission of Swamp Rat 13—the traditional place for a Top Fuel driver in 1970—when the experimental transmission exploded on the starting line.
The blast tore the dragster apart around his legs and severed much of Garlits’ right foot.
How He Walked Away: There wasn’t much walking involved for a while. Garlits survived surgery and began thinking about the arrangement that had put a transmission, clutch and several thousand horsepower directly in front of the driver.
Most racers would have concentrated on recovery. Garlits also redesigned the race car.
After the Wreck: His rear-engine Swamp Rat 14 won the 1971 NHRA Winternationals and helped make the old front-engine layout obsolete. Garlits went on to win NHRA Top Fuel championships in 1975, 1985 and 1986.
Career Context: “Big Daddy” was already one of drag racing’s defining figures. The crash made him even more important.
What Changed: Within a remarkably short time, the engine-behind-the-driver arrangement became the standard for Top Fuel.
Jim Nicoll — U.S. Nationals
September 1970
NHRA Top Fuel — U.S. Nationals final — Indianapolis Raceway Park, Indiana
What Happened: Only months after Garlits’ accident, Jim Nicoll reached the Top Fuel final at Indianapolis. During the run, the clutch exploded underneath him.
The front-engine dragster was cut apart so completely that the driver’s compartment and the forward portion of the car separated. Nicoll was left riding what amounted to a rapidly decelerating fragment of a race car.
How He Walked Away: He survived with astonishingly little injury considering what had just happened.
Career Context: Nicoll was a nationally competitive Top Fuel racer, but this particular run became larger than his win-loss record.
What Changed: Garlits had already begun moving toward the rear-engine solution after his own accident. Nicoll’s spectacular wreck supplied another very public demonstration of exactly what could happen when the driver sat immediately behind an exploding clutch.
1971
Connie Kalitta — U.S. Nationals
September 1971
NHRA Top Fuel — U.S. Nationals — Indianapolis Raceway Park, Indiana
What Happened: Connie Kalitta climbed into Poncho Rendon’s unusual rear-engine wedge Top Fuel dragster during qualifying. Kalitta had never driven a rear-engine fueler before. After he pedaled the car through tire shake, the rear end apparently unlocked on one side and the dragster turned sharply left.
The car went onto its side and disintegrated as it slid down the track, leaving little more than the battered chassis and roll cage surrounding Kalitta.
How He Walked Away: Kalitta emerged battered and bruised but without the catastrophic injuries the wreck appeared capable of producing.
After the Wreck: The following day he was strapped back into his Bounty Hunter Funny Car. One of his crewmen later recalled that Kalitta was hurting badly enough that he nearly passed out while being buckled into the car.
Career Context: Kalitta was already one of drag racing’s established stars and had spent much of the previous decade racing Top Fuel and Funny Cars. The wreck did not end either career.
1973
Salt Walther — Indianapolis 500
May 28, 1973
USAC — Indianapolis 500 — Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indiana
What Happened: The 1973 Indianapolis 500 had barely started when Salt Walther tangled wheels with Jerry Grant. Walther’s car climbed over another wheel, went airborne and slammed into the frontstretch catch fence.
The fence tore open the car and fuel tanks. Burning methanol sprayed across the track and into the area behind the fence while Walther’s wrecked machine came back onto the racing surface upside down and became part of a huge opening-lap pileup.
How He Walked Away: Walther suffered severe burns and major hand injuries and spent months in the hospital. There was nothing casual about his survival.
After the Wreck: He returned to Indianapolis in 1974 and eventually made seven Indianapolis 500 starts.
Career Context: The crash became one of the defining images of an Indianapolis month already remembered for terrible weather, repeated accidents and the deaths of Art Pollard and Swede Savage.
1976
Niki Lauda — Nürburgring
August 1, 1976
FIA Formula One — German Grand Prix — Nürburgring, Germany
What Happened: Niki Lauda crashed his Ferrari on the old Nürburgring, struck the barriers and rebounded onto the track in flames. Other drivers stopped and helped pull him from the burning car while the race continued around them.
Lauda suffered severe burns and serious lung damage from breathing superheated toxic fumes.
How He Walked Away: Doctors gave Lauda the last rites.
Six weeks later he was back in a Ferrari at Monza.
His burns were still healing, his helmet liner became bloodied during the race, and Lauda finished fourth.
After the Wreck: Lauda won the Formula One World Championship again in 1977 and, after another retirement and comeback, won a third championship in 1984.
Career Context: He had already won the 1975 title when he crashed. Coming back six weeks later was remarkable. Coming back and adding two more championships is why this story never gets old.
1977
David Purley — Silverstone
July 14, 1977
Formula One — British Grand Prix pre-qualifying — Silverstone, England
What Happened: A mechanical failure sent David Purley’s LEC straight into a barrier at Silverstone. The car went from roughly 108 mph to essentially stopped in little more than half a meter.
The estimated deceleration approached 180 g, an impact so abrupt that for years it was cited among the highest forces known to have been survived in a racing accident.
How He Walked Away: Purley suffered multiple major fractures but lived. His top-level racing career never fully recovered from the injuries.
Career Context: Purley was already known for extraordinary courage. Four years earlier at Zandvoort, he had stopped his own Formula One car and tried single-handedly to rescue Roger Williamson from a burning wreck while the race continued.
Then in 1977 he demonstrated that he was remarkably difficult to kill himself.
1980–1989
1981
Danny Ongais — Indianapolis 500
May 24, 1981
USAC/CART — Indianapolis 500 — Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indiana
What Happened: Danny Ongais hit the wall nearly head-on during the Indianapolis 500. The front of the car was destroyed in an impact that caused severe injuries and brought his season to an immediate stop.
How He Walked Away: Ongais survived major orthopedic injuries that required an extensive recovery. The medical work performed on him became part of the emerging specialty of repairing racers whose legs and feet had absorbed tremendous impacts in fragile open-wheel cars.
After the Wreck: Ongais returned to Indy-car racing and continued competing at the highest levels. At age 54 he even returned to Indianapolis in 1996 and charged from the back of the field to seventh.
Career Context: Ongais had won in Top Fuel, Funny Car and sports cars, set speed records with Mickey Thompson and won the 1979 Rolex 24 at Daytona.
He also was not finished supplying material for this page.
1982
Raymond Beadle — Gatornationals
March 1982
NHRA Funny Car — Gatornationals — Gainesville Raceway, Florida
What Happened: In the first round, Beadle’s Blue Max moved out of the groove and rolled onto its roof before sliding into the far wall. The impact knocked the Funny Car body away and the chassis came back down on its wheels.
How He Walked Away: Beadle steered the battered chassis back toward his lane, stopped it, climbed out through the escape hatch and raised both hands over his head while the crowd erupted.
After the Wreck: The crash did not end Beadle’s career. He continued competing through the middle of the decade, and the Blue Max remained a national-event winner after he stepped out of the seat.
Career Context: Beadle entered 1982 as the three-time defending NHRA Funny Car champion and one of the biggest names in drag racing.
1984
Rick Mears — Sanair
September 7, 1984
CART — Indy-car practice — Sanair Speedway, Quebec, Canada
What Happened: Rick Mears crashed during practice on Sanair’s short oval. The nose of his car drove underneath the guardrail and crushed both feet.
The damage was so severe that Canadian doctors considered amputation.
How He Walked Away: Roger Penske and racing physician Dr. Steve Olvey arranged to get Mears back to Indianapolis, where orthopedic surgeon Dr. Terry Trammell undertook an extraordinary reconstruction of the shattered bones, tissue and blood supply in his feet.
After the Wreck: Mears won again at Pocono in 1985. Then he added Indianapolis 500 victories in 1988 and 1991, giving him four and tying the all-time record.
Career Context: Mears had already won Indianapolis twice before Sanair. Everything he accomplished after doctors considered taking his feet is what moves this wreck from a medical story into racing legend.
Ed McCulloch and John Collins — Cajun Nationals
May 27, 1984
NHRA Funny Car — Cajun Nationals — State Capitol Raceway, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
What Happened: During Funny Car qualifying, Ed McCulloch’s Oldsmobile got loose early in the run, crossed the centerline and collided with John Collins’ Camaro.
Both Funny Cars were destroyed in a violent two-car crash.
How They Walked Away: Somehow, neither McCulloch nor Collins suffered serious injury.
After the Wreck: McCulloch came back with the Larry Minor operation and was winning again by 1986. He eventually added two more Funny Car victories at the U.S. Nationals before returning to Top Fuel and winning Indianapolis there too.
Career Context: McCulloch was already one of Funny Car’s great veterans and a three-time U.S. Nationals winner when the crash occurred. The wreck destroyed the machinery. It did very little to slow down The Ace.
Shirley Muldowney — Sanair
June 29, 1984
NHRA Top Fuel — Grandnational — Sanair, Quebec, Canada
What Happened: Near 250 mph, trouble with a front tire sent Shirley Muldowney’s Top Fuel dragster out of control and into a drainage ditch. The dragster was destroyed around her.
How She Walked Away: Muldowney suffered devastating injuries including a shattered pelvis and severe fractures to her legs and hands. Multiple operations followed, then a long and painful rehabilitation.
After the Wreck: She returned to Top Fuel in 1986. In 1989, five years after the crash, she won the NHRA Fall Nationals at Phoenix.
Career Context: By the time of the accident, Muldowney had already become the first woman to win an NHRA professional championship and had collected three Top Fuel titles.
The crash did not create her legend. It merely demonstrated how difficult it was to end it.
1985
Danny Ongais — Michigan
1985
CART — Michigan International Speedway, Michigan
What Happened: Ongais came upon the slower car of Phil Krueger on Michigan’s backstretch and made contact. His Indy car launched into a spectacular series of barrel rolls at the enormous speeds produced by the two-mile superspeedway.
How He Walked Away: The car looked ruined. Ongais survived.
Four years after the head-on Indianapolis crash that had already put him through an extensive recovery, he once again emerged from an accident that looked considerably worse than its outcome.
Career Context: Ongais’ willingness to drive extremely fast machinery earned him the nickname “On the Gas.” His résumé is unusual even among racing eccentrics: drag racing, Indy cars, Formula One, endurance racing and Bonneville.
Apparently the nickname was not intended as medical advice.
1986
Don Garlits — Summernationals
July 12, 1986
NHRA Top Fuel — Summernationals qualifying — Raceway Park, Englishtown, New Jersey
What Happened: Don Garlits was qualifying Swamp Rat XXX when the streamlined Top Fuel dragster carried enough speed and enough rear downforce to start doing something no Top Fuel car had ever done before. The nose lifted, the car rotated backward and Garlits suddenly found himself riding a giant black wheelstand that became a full blowover.
The dragster pirouetted through one of the most famous pieces of Top Fuel film ever shot.
How He Walked Away: Garlits escaped unhurt, which was fortunate because there was nothing gentle about the lesson. A machine built to cheat the air had just demonstrated that the air was prepared to argue back.
After the Wreck: He repaired the car, continued the season and went on to win the 1986 NHRA Top Fuel championship.
Career Context: Garlits had already become the sport’s great elder statesman, chief experimenter and most recognizable Top Fuel driver. The 1986 blowover did not slow the legend. It merely added one more unforgettable image to it.
What Changed: The accident became one of drag racing’s clearest warnings that aerodynamics had become a major part of Top Fuel design. The class would never again pretend the air was only scenery.
1987
Bobby Allison — Talladega
May 3, 1987
NASCAR Winston Cup — Winston 500 — Talladega Superspeedway, Alabama
What Happened: Bobby Allison’s Buick suffered a tire failure at Talladega and turned sideways at nearly 200 mph. Air got under the car, launching it into the frontstretch catch fence.
The fence did its job badly enough to terrify everyone and well enough to prevent the entire race car from entering the grandstand.
How He Walked Away: Allison escaped the car. Spectators were injured by debris, but a potentially catastrophic grandstand disaster had been avoided by a margin nobody cared to measure twice.
After the Wreck: Allison returned and won NASCAR’s biggest race, the 1988 Daytona 500, with son Davey finishing second.
Career Context: Allison was already a NASCAR champion and one of the sport’s winningest drivers.
What Changed: The accident became a major factor in NASCAR’s decision to reduce speeds at Daytona and Talladega. Restrictor plates became mandatory at the two superspeedways beginning in 1988.
Don Garlits — Spokane
August 21, 1987
ADRA/AHRA Top Fuel — Spokane, Washington
What Happened: One year after the Summernationals blowover, Garlits was back in another advanced dragster, Swamp Rat 31, when the car reared up downtrack at Spokane and went over backward. This one was not the famous pirouette from Englishtown.
This one was a harder, uglier, more destructive ride, and it finished with the car upside down and on fire.
How He Walked Away: Garlits survived with two broken ribs and a back injury. Compared with what the car looked like afterward, that still counts as walking away.
After the Wreck: The accident helped push Garlits into another retirement from active Top Fuel driving. He moved into television work for a while, then later returned because apparently retirement and Don Garlits were never especially close friends.
Career Context: Garlits had already changed the sport once with the rear-engine dragster and had just come off another championship season. Spokane showed that even the man who helped rewrite Top Fuel could still be reminded how violent the class remained.
1988
Bobby Allison — Pocono
June 19, 1988
NASCAR Winston Cup — Pocono Raceway, Pennsylvania
What Happened: Just over a year after flying into Talladega’s catch fence, Allison suffered an entirely different kind of disaster at Pocono. A first-lap crash sent his car hard into the barrier and left him with catastrophic head injuries.
How He Walked Away: Allison survived, but spent 108 days in the hospital. His recovery required relearning ordinary tasks and left gaps in his memory surrounding the accident.
He never raced again.
Career Context: Allison’s driving career ended with 84 recognized NASCAR Cup victories, the 1983 championship and three Daytona 500 wins.
He had survived the spectacular Talladega flight. It was the less theatrical Pocono impact that finally ended the driving.
1990–1999
1990
Martin Donnelly — Jerez
September 1990
FIA Formula One — Spanish Grand Prix qualifying — Jerez, Spain
What Happened: Martin Donnelly’s Lotus suffered a massive crash at roughly 160 mph during qualifying. The car disintegrated against the barrier and Donnelly was thrown from it, coming to rest motionless on the racing surface.
The television pictures looked like the aftermath of a fatal accident because, in that era, they usually were.
How He Walked Away: Donnelly suffered devastating injuries but survived. His Formula One career was finished, yet his life was not.
Career Context: Donnelly was a highly regarded young Lotus driver whose career was still developing when the crash ended it.
Michael Waltrip — Bristol
1990
NASCAR Busch Series — practice — Bristol International Raceway, Tennessee
What Happened: Michael Waltrip hit an improperly secured crossover gate in the concrete wall at Bristol. The impact tore the car apart so completely that the front and rear portions went separate directions.
There was not much left resembling a complete automobile.
How He Walked Away: Waltrip climbed out essentially unhurt.
After the Wreck: Waltrip eventually won the Daytona 500 in 2001 and 2003, finally breaking a 462-race Cup winless streak in the biggest stock-car race of them all.
Career Context: There are accidents where survival requires months of surgery and rehabilitation, and then there are accidents where the race car explodes into pieces and the driver appears to have misplaced nothing more important than the car.
1993
Rusty Wallace — Talladega
May 2, 1993
NASCAR Winston Cup — Winston 500 — Talladega Superspeedway, Alabama
What Happened: On the final lap at Talladega, contact with Dale Earnhardt turned Rusty Wallace’s Pontiac sideways. Once the car presented its broad side to the air, aerodynamics took over from steering.
Wallace went airborne and began a violent series of rolls across the grass. He crossed the start-finish line still in the process of crashing and was officially credited with sixth place.
How He Walked Away: Wallace survived an accident that scattered pieces over the frontstretch and provided another demonstration that a stock car at superspeedway speed could become an airplane with very poor landing characteristics.
After the Wreck: Wallace continued winning NASCAR Cup races for more than a decade and remained a championship contender through much of the 1990s.
Career Context: Wallace was the 1989 NASCAR champion and one of the premier drivers of his generation.
What Changed: NASCAR’s work on keeping cars on the ground accelerated, leading to the adoption of roof flaps designed to dump the pressure that builds when a car turns backward at high speed.
1994
Ernie Irvan — Michigan
August 20, 1994
NASCAR Winston Cup — practice — Michigan International Speedway
What Happened: A tire failure sent Ernie Irvan hard into the Turn One wall during practice. There was no spectacular flight and no long series of barrel rolls. The impact itself did the damage.
Irvan was critically injured and unconscious. Early estimates gave him only a small chance of surviving.
How He Walked Away: Irvan recovered from severe head and chest injuries, went through an enormous rehabilitation effort and returned to NASCAR competition in 1995.
After the Wreck: In June 1997, Irvan returned to Michigan International Speedway and won. It became the final Cup victory of his career.
Career Context: Before the accident Irvan had won the Daytona 500 and was a championship contender. Coming back was remarkable. Winning at the same track that nearly killed him was pure racer.
1995
Stan Fox — Indianapolis 500
May 28, 1995
USAC/CART — Indianapolis 500 — Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indiana
What Happened: The field had barely begun the Indianapolis 500 when Stan Fox became involved in a first-lap crash. His car struck the wall almost head-on and was torn apart, leaving the cockpit exposed amid a trail of wreckage.
How He Walked Away: Fox suffered severe head injuries but survived. He made a substantial recovery, although the accident ended his professional driving career.
Career Context: Fox was a superb midget racer, a USAC champion and an eight-time Indianapolis 500 starter.
Mika Häkkinen — Adelaide
November 10, 1995
FIA Formula One — Australian Grand Prix qualifying — Adelaide, Australia
What Happened: A deflating rear tire sent Mika Häkkinen’s McLaren into the barrier at high speed. The impact caused severe head injuries and left him unconscious in the cockpit.
How He Walked Away: Häkkinen’s airway became obstructed, and the medical team performed an emergency tracheotomy at the track. He suffered a fractured skull and neurological injuries, then spent the winter recovering.
Seventeen weeks after the crash, Häkkinen was back racing in Formula One.
After the Wreck: Häkkinen went considerably beyond returning. He won back-to-back Formula One World Championships in 1998 and 1999.
Career Context: A driver who nearly died in late 1995 was beating Michael Schumacher and Ferrari for world championships three years later.
1997
Al Hofmann — Gatornationals
March 1997
NHRA Funny Car — Gatornationals final — Gainesville Raceway, Florida
What Happened: Al Hofmann was completing a winning run when mechanical failure produced a violent fire and crash in the shutdown area. The Funny Car hit the guardrail after the finish line with Hofmann still along for the ride.
How He Walked Away: Hofmann suffered significant injuries to his right arm and wrist, including a compound fracture, but survived and returned to competition.
After the Wreck: Hofmann was back in the winner’s circle later that same season, winning the NHRA event at Dallas.
Career Context: Hofmann was one of John Force’s fiercest Funny Car rivals in the 1990s and won 15 NHRA national events.
2000–2009
2000
Geoff Bodine — Daytona
February 18, 2000
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series — Daytona 250 — Daytona International Speedway, Florida
What Happened: Geoff Bodine became involved in a huge Truck Series crash on Daytona’s frontstretch. His truck was launched into the catch fence at roughly 190 mph, torn apart, thrown back onto the racing surface and struck again as the wreck continued around it.
The truck burned. Pieces went everywhere. For several seconds there appeared to be very little race truck left in which a human being could have survived.
How He Walked Away: Bodine suffered serious injuries but survived one of the most violent crashes ever televised at Daytona.
After the Wreck: Bodine returned to Cup racing and finished third in the 2002 Daytona 500.
Career Context: Bodine was already the 1986 Daytona 500 winner and an accomplished NASCAR veteran.
2001
Alex Zanardi — Lausitzring
September 15, 2001
CART — American Memorial 500 — EuroSpeedway Lausitz, Germany
What Happened: Alex Zanardi was leaving the pits late in the race when his car spun across the racing line. Alex Tagliani arrived at full speed and struck Zanardi’s car broadside.
The impact tore the front half of Zanardi’s car away.
How He Walked Away: Zanardi lost both legs and came extraordinarily close to bleeding to death. Rapid work by CART’s medical team kept him alive through massive blood loss.
After the Wreck: Zanardi returned to racing using hand controls and won again in touring-car competition. He then became an elite handcyclist and won multiple Paralympic gold medals.
Career Context: Before the accident, Zanardi was already a two-time CART champion. After it, racing victories became only part of the reason people remembered him.
2002
Mike Harmon — Bristol
August 22, 2002
NASCAR Busch Series — practice — Bristol Motor Speedway, Tennessee
What Happened: Mike Harmon crashed into Bristol’s crossover gate during practice. The impact ripped the car nearly in half. Johnny Sauter’s car then arrived and struck the wreckage while Harmon was still caught in the middle of the mess.
It looked disturbingly similar to Michael Waltrip’s 1990 Bristol accident at another crossover gate.
How He Walked Away: Harmon escaped with essentially no serious injury.
The car was destroyed so completely that photographs leave the impression somebody forgot the middle portion while assembling it.
Career Context: Harmon was not a NASCAR superstar, and that is exactly why this entry demonstrates the rule for this page. Sometimes the driver earns the story. Sometimes the wreck does.
This wreck earned it.
2003
Kenny Bräck — Texas
October 12, 2003
Indy Racing League — Texas Motor Speedway
What Happened: Kenny Bräck’s car made contact during the high-speed oval race at Texas and was launched into the catch fencing. The car broke apart violently while spinning against the fence before the remains fell back onto the track.
How He Walked Away: Bräck suffered a spinal fracture, broken sternum, broken leg and devastating injuries to his feet. He spent approximately three months in the hospital.
After the Wreck: Bräck returned for the 2005 Indianapolis 500 and qualified for the race before stepping away from full-time Indy-car competition.
Career Context: Bräck was the 1998 IRL champion and 1999 Indianapolis 500 winner.
2007
John Force — Texas Motorplex
September 23, 2007
NHRA Funny Car — Fall Nationals — Texas Motorplex, Ennis, Texas
What Happened: Force had just won his elimination round when his Funny Car suffered a catastrophic failure and collided with Kenny Bernstein’s car beyond the finish line. Force’s car broke apart and crashed heavily.
How He Walked Away: Force suffered severe injuries to his legs, hands and feet and underwent hours of reconstructive surgery followed by months of rehabilitation.
After the Wreck: Force returned in 2008. He then won the 2010 and 2013 NHRA Funny Car championships and, at age 70, won the 2019 U.S. Nationals.
Career Context: Force was already the most successful Funny Car driver in NHRA history. This would not be the last time he qualified for this page.
Robert Kubica — Canadian Grand Prix
June 10, 2007
FIA Formula One — Canadian Grand Prix — Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal
What Happened: Robert Kubica’s BMW Sauber made contact while racing toward the hairpin, lost its front wing and speared into a concrete wall at tremendous speed. The car rebounded across the track, rolled and struck another barrier before stopping on its side.
The survival cell looked like something delivered by a crusher.
How He Walked Away: Kubica escaped with a concussion and a relatively minor ankle injury. He missed one race.
After the Wreck: One year later he returned to Montreal and won the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix.
Career Context: The crash became one of the clearest demonstrations of how strong a modern Formula One survival cell had become.
2008
Michael McDowell — Texas
April 4, 2008
NASCAR Sprint Cup — qualifying — Texas Motor Speedway
What Happened: Rookie Michael McDowell lost control during qualifying at nearly 200 mph. The Toyota struck the outside SAFER barrier almost head-on, rebounded and began a violent succession of barrel rolls before eventually landing upright.
The car absorbed a ridiculous amount of energy and looked appropriately ruined afterward.
How He Walked Away: McDowell lowered the window net and climbed out.
No long hospital stay. No heroic rehabilitation story. He simply survived a crash that looked completely incompatible with getting out under his own power.
After the Wreck: McDowell stayed with NASCAR through years of underfunded rides and finally won the 2021 Daytona 500. He added another Cup victory at Indianapolis in 2023.
Career Context: The wreck became the defining image of McDowell’s early NASCAR career. Years later he supplied considerably better ones.
2009
Carl Edwards — Talladega
April 26, 2009
NASCAR Sprint Cup — Aaron’s 499 — Talladega Superspeedway, Alabama
What Happened: Carl Edwards tried to block Brad Keselowski during the final dash to the finish. Contact turned Edwards’ car sideways, launched it into the air and sent it roof-first into Talladega’s frontstretch catch fence.
The car dropped back onto the track battered and unable to continue.
How He Walked Away: Edwards climbed out and, finding himself short one functional race car but still technically in a race, ran on foot toward the finish line.
It accomplished nothing in the official results. It accomplished plenty for the story.
After the Wreck: Edwards continued winning at the Cup level, including the 2015 Coca-Cola 600, and lost the 2011 Cup championship only on a tiebreaker.
Career Context: Edwards remained one of NASCAR’s leading drivers until his surprise retirement after the 2016 season.
Felipe Massa — Hungarian Grand Prix
July 25, 2009
FIA Formula One — Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying — Hungaroring, Hungary
What Happened: A suspension spring came loose from Rubens Barrichello’s Brawn and bounced down the track. Massa arrived moments later in his Ferrari and the spring struck the front of his helmet at racing speed.
The blow knocked him unconscious and the Ferrari continued into the tire barrier.
How He Walked Away: Massa suffered serious head injuries and required emergency surgery. He missed the remainder of the 2009 season but recovered and returned to Formula One in 2010.
Career Context: Massa had missed winning the 2008 World Championship by a single point and remained with Ferrari after his return.
This one did not require a destroyed race car to be frightening. A small piece of somebody else’s suspension was enough.
2010–2019
2011
Robert Kubica — Ronde di Andora
February 6, 2011
Rally competition — Ronde di Andora — Italy
What Happened: Kubica crashed his Skoda Fabia rally car into an Armco barrier. Instead of simply stopping the car, the barrier penetrated the cockpit and caused catastrophic injuries to Kubica’s right arm and hand, along with fractures elsewhere.
How He Walked Away: Rescue crews worked for more than an hour to free him. His right forearm was partially severed, and surgeons faced the difficult job of saving both the limb and its function.
Kubica did not return to Formula One the next year—or the year after that.
After the Wreck: He eventually returned to Formula One full-time in 2019, then moved into endurance racing. In 2025, Kubica won the 24 Hours of Le Mans overall in a Ferrari 499P.
Career Context: This was Kubica’s second appearance on this page after the enormous 2007 Montreal crash. The first showed how well a race car could protect a driver. The second showed how much damage an ordinary roadside barrier could still do.
2013
Dario Franchitti — Houston
October 6, 2013
INDYCAR — Grand Prix of Houston — Houston, Texas
What Happened: On the final lap, Dario Franchitti made contact while battling Takuma Sato. Franchitti’s car launched into the catch fencing and came apart violently before falling back to the circuit.
How He Walked Away: Franchitti suffered a concussion, spinal fractures and a broken right ankle. Doctors eventually advised that the accumulated effects of his injuries made continuing too dangerous, and Franchitti retired.
Career Context: He left with four IndyCar championships and three Indianapolis 500 victories. The crash ended an extraordinary driving career but did not get to end the driver.
2014
Memo Gidley — Rolex 24 at Daytona
January 25, 2014
IMSA — Rolex 24 at Daytona — Daytona International Speedway, Florida
What Happened: Memo Gidley was accelerating through a fast section of the road course when he came upon a much slower GT car. The prototype struck it with enormous force, destroying the front of Gidley’s car.
How He Walked Away: Gidley suffered severe injuries to his spine, left arm and left leg and underwent multiple operations followed by years of rehabilitation.
After the Wreck: Gidley eventually returned to professional sports-car racing.
Career Context: Gidley had competed in CART and sports cars and had spent much of his career taking opportunities whenever they appeared.
2015
Kyle Busch — Daytona
February 21, 2015
NASCAR Xfinity Series — Alert Today Florida 300 — Daytona International Speedway
What Happened: Kyle Busch was swept into a late crash and shot across the infield toward an inside concrete wall that was not protected by a SAFER barrier. The car struck nearly head-on.
How He Walked Away: Busch suffered a compound fracture of his right lower leg and a fracture of his left foot. He underwent surgery and missed the opening portion of the Cup season.
After the Wreck: Busch returned in May, won five Cup races and then won the 2015 NASCAR Cup championship.
That is a fairly efficient way to make a comeback.
What Changed: Daytona immediately moved to add additional energy-absorbing barrier protection, and the accident intensified NASCAR’s push to cover exposed concrete walls throughout the series.
Austin Dillon — Daytona
July 6, 2015
NASCAR Sprint Cup — Coke Zero 400 — Daytona International Speedway
What Happened: The race ended with a huge last-lap crash. Austin Dillon’s No. 3 Chevrolet was launched over other cars and flew directly into the frontstretch catch fence.
The fence ripped major components from the car and threw what remained back onto the track upside down. Then another spinning car hit the wreck.
How He Walked Away: Crewmen rushed toward the mangled car expecting the worst.
Dillon climbed out with a bruised tailbone and forearm.
After the Wreck: Dillon later won two of NASCAR’s crown-jewel races: the 2017 Coca-Cola 600 and the 2018 Daytona 500.
Career Context: There have been prettier demonstrations of NASCAR safety engineering. There may not have been many clearer ones.
Larry Dixon — Gainesville
March 2015
NHRA Top Fuel — Gatornationals qualifying — Gainesville Raceway, Florida
What Happened: Larry Dixon’s Top Fuel dragster suffered a catastrophic chassis failure near the finish line. The car folded, launched into the air and came down in pieces after one of the most spectacular modern Top Fuel crashes.
How He Walked Away: Dixon climbed from the wreckage under his own power. Later examination found fractured vertebrae.
After the Wreck: He returned immediately to competition and finished fourth in the 2015 Top Fuel championship standings.
Career Context: Dixon was already a three-time NHRA Top Fuel champion.
James Hinchcliffe — Indianapolis
May 18, 2015
INDYCAR — Indianapolis 500 practice — Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indiana
What Happened: A suspension failure sent James Hinchcliffe hard into the wall during Indianapolis practice. A broken suspension component penetrated the cockpit and caused catastrophic injuries to his leg and pelvis.
How He Walked Away: Hinchcliffe lost an enormous amount of blood. The immediate response of the Indianapolis safety and medical team was crucial to keeping him alive long enough for surgery.
After the Wreck: One year later, Hinchcliffe won the pole for the 100th Indianapolis 500. In 2017 he won the IndyCar race at Long Beach.
Career Context: Some comeback stories end with getting back into the car. Hinchcliffe went one better and put that car at the front of the most famous starting grid in American racing.
2016
Fernando Alonso and Esteban Gutiérrez — Australian Grand Prix
March 20, 2016
FIA Formula One — Australian Grand Prix — Albert Park, Melbourne
What Happened: Fernando Alonso was overtaking Esteban Gutiérrez approaching Turn Three when the McLaren clipped the Haas. Alonso’s car hit the wall, launched into the air, barrel-rolled through the gravel and finally came to rest against the tire barrier looking considerably shorter than when the lap began.
Gutiérrez also spun out in the contact.
How They Walked Away: Gutiérrez climbed from his car. Alonso crawled out of the wrecked McLaren unaided and walked away.
After the Wreck: Alonso later won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2018 and 2019 with Toyota and won the 2018–19 FIA World Endurance Championship. He also won the 2019 Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Career Context: Alonso was already a two-time Formula One World Champion. The accident became another dramatic advertisement for the strength of the modern F1 survival cell.
2017
Sébastien Bourdais — Indianapolis
May 20, 2017
INDYCAR — Indianapolis 500 qualifying — Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indiana
What Happened: Bourdais was in the middle of an exceptionally fast qualifying run when his car snapped loose entering Turn Two and hit the SAFER barrier at roughly 227 mph.
The impact was enormous.
How He Walked Away: Bourdais suffered fractures to his pelvis and hip and required surgery. Approximately three months after the crash, he was back in an Indy car.
After the Wreck: At the opening race of the following season, Bourdais won the 2018 Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
Career Context: Bourdais was a four-time Champ Car champion and one of the most accomplished open-wheel drivers of his generation.
Scott Dixon and Jay Howard — Indianapolis 500
May 28, 2017
INDYCAR — Indianapolis 500 — Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indiana
What Happened: Jay Howard hit the wall and slid back across the track into the path of Scott Dixon. Dixon’s car climbed over Howard’s, launched high into the air, rotated and struck the inside wall and catch fencing before coming apart.
For a moment, the pole-winning car was flying over the infield rather than racing around it.
How They Walked Away: Both drivers escaped serious injury. Dixon climbed from what remained of his car and walked away.
After the Wreck: Dixon continued adding championships, winning the IndyCar title in 2018 and 2020 to bring his career total to six.
Career Context: Dixon was already an Indianapolis winner and multiple IndyCar champion. Evidently there was still room on the trophy shelf.
2018
Robert Wickens — Pocono
August 19, 2018
INDYCAR — ABC Supply 500 — Pocono Raceway, Pennsylvania
What Happened: Robert Wickens made contact with Ryan Hunter-Reay early in the race. Wickens’ car climbed over the other machine, launched into the catch fence and spun violently against it while shedding major components.
How He Walked Away: Wickens suffered a thoracic spinal fracture, spinal-cord injury and fractures to his neck, legs and right forearm. Multiple surgeries and an enormous rehabilitation effort followed.
After the Wreck: Wickens returned to professional racing with hand controls. He won races and then captured the 2023 IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge TCR championship.
Career Context: His comeback became a different sort of competition—measured first in movements, then steps, then laps, and eventually trophies again.
2020–Present
2020
Romain Grosjean — Bahrain Grand Prix
November 29, 2020
FIA Formula One — Bahrain Grand Prix — Bahrain International Circuit
What Happened: On the opening lap, Romain Grosjean’s Haas made contact with another car and shot nearly head-on into a metal barrier.
The survival cell penetrated the barrier. The car split apart. Fuel ignited and the cockpit disappeared into a huge fire.
It looked like an accident from the 1960s had somehow wandered into modern Formula One.
How He Walked Away: Grosjean remained inside the flames for roughly half a minute while trying to free himself. He eventually climbed through the broken barrier and emerged from the fire, suffering burns to his hands but no major fractures.
After the Wreck: Grosjean did not race Formula One again, but he returned to professional competition in IndyCar in 2021.
Career Context: The survival cell, modern fire-resistant equipment and particularly the halo cockpit structure all played important roles.
A device criticized for being ugly had made a rather persuasive counterargument.
Ryan Newman — Daytona 500
February 17, 2020
NASCAR Cup Series — Daytona 500 — Daytona International Speedway, Florida
What Happened: Ryan Newman was leading in sight of the Daytona 500 finish when contact turned his Ford into the outside wall. The car flipped onto its roof, was struck hard in the driver’s-side area by another car and continued sliding upside down across the finish line.
Newman was unconscious when safety crews reached him.
How He Walked Away: Less than 48 hours after a crash that had left the racing world fearing the worst, Newman walked out of the hospital holding his daughters’ hands.
He later said he had suffered a brain injury but no broken bones or major internal-organ damage.
After the Wreck: Newman returned to NASCAR Cup competition later that same season.
Career Context: Few accidents have ever fit the title of this page more literally.
2022
Zhou Guanyu — British Grand Prix
July 3, 2022
FIA Formula One — British Grand Prix — Silverstone, England
What Happened: Contact at the start flipped Zhou Guanyu’s Alfa Romeo upside down. The car slid along the track on its roll structure and halo, crossed the gravel trap, flipped over the tire barrier and became wedged between the barrier and catch fence.
How He Walked Away: Zhou was extracted from the trapped car, examined at the medical center and escaped serious injury.
After the Wreck: Zhou returned to Formula One competition at the very next Grand Prix.
Career Context: The crash provided another dramatic test of the halo system and modern Formula One cockpit standards.
It turns out a driver’s head is more valuable than a clean profile line.
2023
Ryan Preece — Daytona
August 26, 2023
NASCAR Cup Series — Coke Zero Sugar 400 — Daytona International Speedway, Florida
What Happened: Ryan Preece’s Ford was turned into the infield late in the race. Once it reached the grass, the car became airborne and began an extraordinary series of barrel rolls.
NASCAR counted roughly ten tumbles before the battered car finally landed back on its wheels.
How He Walked Away: Preece climbed from the car with assistance, spent the night at a nearby hospital for observation and was released the following morning.
After the Wreck: He was medically cleared and raced again the very next weekend.
Career Context: Race cars are not intended to complete ten consecutive rolls. They are, however, increasingly designed around the assumption that racers will eventually ask them to do something ridiculous anyway.
2024
John Force — Virginia
June 23, 2024
NHRA Funny Car — Virginia Nationals — Virginia Motorsports Park
What Happened: John Force crossed the finish line after winning his first-round race when his engine exploded. The Funny Car crossed the centerline and struck the barriers on both sides of the shutdown area before stopping.
How He Walked Away: Force was initially alert but was later diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury and spent an extended period in hospital and neurological rehabilitation.
He survived another crash that would have been entirely sufficient for anybody who had not already survived the 2007 Texas wreck.
After the Wreck: Force did not return to competition. In November 2025, after continued recovery and medical care, he officially retired from driving.
Career Context: Force finished with 16 NHRA Funny Car championships and 157 national-event victories, both records for his class.
What Counts as Walking Away?
Some of these drivers literally opened the door, climbed out and waved to the crowd.
Others were unconscious. Some were carried to helicopters. Some lost limbs, spent months in hospitals, endured dozens of operations or never raced again.
They’re here for the same reason.
The accident presented circumstances where death would not have been surprising, and somehow the driver survived.
That is why an ordinary hard hit doesn’t qualify. Neither does every spectacular-looking spin. Racing has produced thousands of those, and modern race cars are specifically built to make ugly crashes survivable.
The ones on this page went well beyond ordinary.
Bottom Line
There is a temptation to look at these wrecks and say the driver was lucky.
Sometimes he certainly was.
But luck didn’t design the roll cage. Luck didn’t invent the fuel cell, five-point harness, fire suit, HANS device, SAFER barrier or halo. Luck didn’t put a trained medical crew thirty seconds away instead of an ambulance somewhere outside the gate.
Those things came from engineers, doctors, mechanics, sanctioning bodies and racers looking at the wrecks that came before and deciding they could do better.
There is no such thing as a perfectly safe race car. Put enough horsepower underneath one and eventually somebody will discover a failure mode the engineers hadn’t considered.
Luck still gets a vote.
Good engineering has just gotten considerably better at stuffing the ballot box.