Driver Carl Edwards somehow walked away unhurt after an unbelievable crash during a Nascar race yesterday.
Edwards' car flipped into the air during a corner of the Talldega Superspeedway and looked to be heading into the crowd but the fence at the side of the track held and the car landed back on the circuit.
Eight spectators were injured but track medical director Bobby Lewis said none of the injuries was life-threatening but two women were airlifted to Birmingham hospitals.
He said one likely had a broken jaw and the other was not injured but was taken because of a medical condition.
Edwards was trying to block a move from winner Brad Keselowski, and contact sent his spinning car over Ryan Newman's hood and into the fence near the finish.
The fence held and Edwards' car landed back on the track.
Seven race fans were treated at Talladega Superspeedway for what were described as minor injuries when Carl Edwards' car went airborne and crashed into the protective fence that separates the track from the seating area on the final lap of Sunday's Aaron's 499 Sprint Cup race.
Dr. Bobby Lewis, the track's medical director, described all the injuries as "minor ... not dangerous or life-threatening -- mostly bumps, bruises, contusions and possible fractures." Track officials did not identify the victims, although the two most seriously injured were confirmed as female fans. Both were airlifted from the track to avoid the heavy post-race traffic, with one being taken to UAB Medical Center with facial injuries and a possible broken jaw, and the other to Brookwood Medical Center with what Lewis called an unspecified "medical issue" not related to the incident. Edwards' car then went airborne and hit the fence, while Keselowski drove past for his first Sprint Cup victory. No different than a football player," Keselowski said. "If we would have run all race without a single lap of contact, everyone in the media center would have wrote about how boring of a race it was, and instead we ran one of the best races you could ever watch on TV with full contact the whole time. The retaining fence that caught Edwards' car kept the vehicle from careening into the seating area. Another portion of the fence had to be repaired during a caution period following a 14-car wreck early in the race.
"The retaining fence did its job," NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp said. NASCAR crash investigators will examine the major wrecks to determine if any change or improvements to the sport's safety plan should be implemented.
It was the third time in Talladega track history the retaining fence played a role in a major crash here. In 1987, Bobby Allison hit the fence coming out of the tri-oval near the start-finish line in an incident that led to the institution of restrictor plates for superspeedway cars.
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