Kyle Larson says he felt like his frightening aerial accident at the end of the Talladega NASCAR Cup Series race would never stop.
Larson and Jeffrey Earnhardt were hit by the spinning William Byron on the final lap of Sunday’s and sent spearing across the track.
While Earnhardt impacted the wall nose-first, Larson’s car lifted off the ground and ended up rolling end over end.
“Initially, I just thought I was going to hit the inside wall pretty good and then right before I got to it, I felt it lift and was just hoping it would set down, but it just started tumbling,” Larson told Fox.
“That was probably the longest flip I’ve ever had.
“I just didn’t know if it was ever going to stop.
“I knew it was flipping and was just hoping I wouldn’t get any closer to the catch fence.
“It was just a little bit scary. But thankfully I’m alright so thanks to the fab shop at Chip Ganassi Racing for building safe racecars.
“It was scary. Just thankful that I’m OK.”
Larson has now crashed out of three of the last four races, and is only 19th in the championship having finished in the top 10 just twice so far this season.
He had been part of the group of Chevrolet teams attempting to work together in the draft to ensure victory for the manufacturer at Talladega.
That plan paid off for Chevrolet overall, as it swept the top three positions with Hendrick Motorsports duo Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman followed home by JTG Daugherty rookie Ryan Preece.
“Hats off to Chase. It was a good day for Chevy,” Larson added.
“We all had a plan to work together and a Chevy won both stages and the race, so that was pretty cool.
“I thought I could have a shot to win there but it just didn’t work out.
“As soon as we left the restart zone, we were kind of in a bad spot and so then I was in the back and when you’re like that and everybody’s four and five wide, you know something crazy is going to happen.”