BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Perhaps no one is more pleased about getting back on a spacious oval racetrack like Michigan International Speedway than Bobby Labonte.

Labonte, driver of the No. 43 Dodge for Petty Enterprises, is coming off what he called one of the most vicious wrecks of his 17-year career as a Sprint Cup Series driver. The accident occurred with seven laps remaining in last Sunday's Centurion Boats at The Glen at Watkins Glen International, eventually collecting Labonte's machine and eight others.

The late-race crash at Watkins Glen was a violent reminder that road courses can bite, too.

• Complete story, click here
• Labonte sent to hospital
• Lap-by-Lap: Watkins Glen
• Video: Big wreck, red flag

"It was a big wreck, a bad one," said Robbie Loomis, executive vice president of Petty Enterprises.

"I'd have to rank it up there pretty high, as far as a hard hit goes," Labonte said.

It began as the cars exited the track's 11th and final turn, when Michael McDowell appeared to lean into the No. 38 car of David Gilliland, who crashed into a tire barrier lining the outside wall. Gilliland rebounded into the narrow chokepoint between the frontstretch and the entrance to pit road, and suddenly all sorts of cars were slamming into each other -- with Labonte eventually appearing to get the worst of it along with Gilliland.

Gilliland took two tremendous hits from the cars of Joe Nemechek and then Labonte, who first bounced off the No. 07 car of Clint Bowyer. Max Papis' car ricocheted off one vehicle after another. And Sam Hornish Jr. careened into the sand barrels protecting the end of the outside pit wall, showering the track in jagged pieces of yellow and black plastic that contributed to a 43-minute delay to get the track cleaned up.

"I couldn't see what was happening in front of me," Labonte said. "I knew they were side-by-side, but then they went out of sight because there were four cars in the right-hand corner and I'm sitting on the left side, looking to the right. So the next thing I saw was the 38 turned around the wrong way -- because he had already hit when I saw it. Because I'm trying to get through all the cars and you can't see there. So the next thing I saw was him coming and the 07 squeezing by. And then I got into the 07 and I didn't have time to let off.

"I think it was the worst-case scenario as far as seeing through the car. It's hard to see through 'em -- and, oh by the way, we're turning right and I'm sitting on the left, so that makes it even worse. If I was sitting right and going into the left-hand corner, you would kind of have a better view of it. Four cars in the left-hand corner would have been better because you're already sort of left-handed. Four cars in the right-hand corner, you're kind of already on the wrong side of the boat. It's just really hard to see through all that."

When it was over and Labonte finally climbed from his car, he was unsteady and hurting badly enough that first he was escorted to the infield care center and then, as a precaution, to a nearby hospital in Elmira, N.Y.

"It was definitely a scary moment," Loomis said. "When you know a guy as well as we know Bobby, and you see him get out of a car after something like that and be as wobbly as he was, you're concerned. You know it was a hard hit. He's a tough guy and he works out a lot, so you know he's in good shape. That probably helped him some, too."

Actually, Labonte's trim build may have worked to his disadvantage. Or so said his brother, fellow former driving champion Terry Labonte, who gave his little brother some, um, painful ribbing about his injuries, which included a couple of cracked ribs.

"I don't know how tough I am. Terry told me, 'If you had more meat on your body right there, you probably wouldn't be hurtin' so bad.' I'm kind of meatless right there," Bobby Labonte said.

Labonte checked out of the hospital and is back in the driver's seat of the No. 43 for Sunday's 3M Performance 400 at Michigan. Labonte qualified 35th for the event Friday, and said he expects to be able to make it through the 400-mile race on the 2-mile track without any problems.

"I don't think it will affect me," Labonte said. "My soreness isn't really where my seat is, so I feel OK about that. Check with me again Sunday afternoon, but I think right now I feel pretty good about it."

That's not to say that the wreck didn't get Labonte thinking about a couple of possible safety improvements. Loomis said Labonte is being fitted for a new seat that should offer him more protection, although it likely won't be used until the Oct. 5 race at Talladega.

"That corner is kind of a blind corner, and it was like a Talladega wreck," Loomis said. "The car stuff, looking at it afterward, all held up pretty well. Unfortunately we still run one of the [older] seats that seemed to catch him in the ribs and crack a couple of his ribs. I don't know if another style of seat would have helped him or not, but when a guy gets used to a seat for a long time, it's hard to change.

"Bobby actually is getting fitted for a new one now, though. We're looking to have him try it out at Talladega. But we're fortunate he's OK."

Labonte added that track officials at Watkins Glen may want to look into placing a SAFER barrier where the old-style tire barrier was that caught Gilliland's machine and basically spit it back out into the fray on the track.

"What they had there kind of grabbed him and then shot him back out," Labonte said. "So if it had been a SAFER barrier, he might have been able to glance off of it and it probably would have been better."

Labonte said he has watched a replay of the accident only "a couple of times." But he said the first thing that caught his attention, like Loomis, was that the violent accident wasn't the type that normally happens on the road course that is Watkins Glen.

And while he praised the new car being used full time by NASCAR for allowing him to escape without more major injuries, he also pointed out that the fact that it's harder to see out of the car may have contributed to it.

"I looked at the car afterward, and there were a few things I saw -- like the radiator wrapped around the valve cover and the crankshaft bent a half-inch. Stuff like that just don't normally move. So it was a hard hit," Labonte said.

"Everybody that came in there got pretty torn up. Not only did it look spectacular, but it actually was as bad as it looked. It was just a crazy wreck, as you all saw. You were like, 'Holy cow. That was at Watkins Glen? You don't normally see something like that there.' I'm glad to get back on an oval this week. Better here than Bristol, at least for this week."