Flippin' out at the 2009 AMP Energy 500

Yesterday Jamie McMurray pulled off a significant upset by winning NASCAR's AMP Energy 500 Sprint Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway. Not that we here at The Car Tech blog would promote gambling, but if you had bet on McMurray, then you would have made out like a bandit with his reported 25 to 1 odds of winning at Talladega. As much as this victory is a feather in McMurray's logo-ridden cap, it doesn't matter much, as it appears that based on points alone Jimmie Johnson is gonna take yet another Sprint Cup championship. Yawn.

But what seems to be getting the most lip service on sports news shows and within the Nascar universe is about the nasty flips and crashes that took place yesterday at the AMP Energy 500. This clip here recaps the first of these accidents, and boy are we glad that no one was seriously injured.

This video begins with just five laps to go in the race, and it looks like Ryan Newman's 39 car gets nudged just enough to set his vehicle into a spin that eventually flips over the hood of Kevin Harvick's 29 car and continues its blowover flip onto its hood into the wall and finally off the track. Newman luckily managed to walk away from the wreck, but his car was mangled something fierce. As always, this Nascar.com clip shows how it happened from every angle imaginable, but perhaps the most horrifying view is the flip happening in real time at the 5:15 mark--it's breathtaking. I think I speak for everyone when I say we're all glad that Ryan escaped this accident with no major injury.