LONG POND, Pa. -- "Thank God for the car and thank God that he's alive -- he's gonna be a little bit sore."

Elliott Sadler's crew chief, Todd Parrott, wasn't speaking for all the television viewers who'd just witnessed a graphically violent Cup Series accident at Pocono Raceway, which occurred with 35 laps left in Sunday's Sunoco Red Cross 500. But he could have been.

Hard crashes

After getting turned by Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch goes for a wild ride and Elliott Sadler walks away after a violent smash.

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Sadler's No. 19 Ford had its engine and part of its front "clip," which holds the engine and front suspension, ripped off the car after it slid through the grass and impacted the inside guardrail just short of the 2.5-mile speedway's Turn 2.

Sadler was shown on ESPN's broadcast grimacing in pain in his car's cockpit before he climbed from the car unassisted, went down on one knee and then sprawled beside it on his back, his legs splayed.

A short time later, after an ambulance ride to the track's infield care center, Sadler looked a lot more haggard than he had on Saturday when he won the track's inaugural Truck Series race.

"I'm fine. I'm OK. I'm a little sore, I think, from where the belts grabbed me," Sadler said. "It knocked the breath out of me pretty good, but it's definitely the hardest hit I've ever had in a race car. These new cars are built to be safer and if I can get out of that and walk [away], I think it did its job."

The accident began when Kurt Busch was tagged from behind by Jimmie Johnson, who was trying to bump-draft him down the straightaway between Turns 1 and 2. The contact turned Busch into the outside wall, which he bounced off of and slid through infield's wet grass before he hit the guardrail flush with the left side of his car.

After leaving the care center, Busch was obviously incensed with Johnson, who apparently apologized on his in-car radio for the incident.

Behind that mess, Sadler reacted but was hit from behind by another car, which turned his Ford into the grass, and then head-on into the guardrail that's backed by a dirt embankment and at an angle to the race track, not parallel.

"I saw smoke and some cars sideways up in front of me," Sadler said. "I didn't know what happened until I just saw a replay in the infield care center, but they started stacking up in front of us and everybody started slowing down and I started slowing down, too, and somebody ran in the back of me.

"I have no idea [who]. Somebody just ran into the back of us and turned us inside through the wet grass into the guardrail, so I was along for the ride. It was a very hard hit. I'm a little sore through my chest and my stomach, but that's from where the seatbelts did their job and grabbed me and kept me in the car, so I'm thankful for that."

"The car obviously did its job," a relieved Parrott said after supervising the preparation of his used-up car to be removed from the track. "I walked out of the infield care center with a guy that, four or five years ago probably wouldn't have lived through that wreck, right there.

"Hat's off to NASCAR and all they've done with the safety stuff since Dale Earnhardt's tragedy [in 2001]. Elliott's a very lucky man, from what I see."

When the car returned to the garage area on a flatbed wrecker, a variety of crewmen and managers from a number of teams surrounded it, including Earnhardt Ganassi Racing competition director Steve Hmiel -- who stuck his head right under the mangled front end of the car -- which was missing its engine, which arrived via a separate wrecker -- and most of its front suspension.

"Heck yeah, in terms of dissipating energy, that's what it's supposed to do," Hmiel said. "If [the chassis] was stiffer it would have put all [the g-forces] back on Elliott.

"Elliott is probably pretty well shook up, but he walked out of the infield care center and that's a good sign. You could see he was in some pain when he got out of the race car but the idea is to tear stuff off [the car] and to avoid the sudden stop.

"It's unfortunate he hit on exactly the wrong spot on the race track, but the truth is that tearing stuff off is not all that bad. An Indy car wreck is a real scary thing to watch, and [Sadler's crash], to look up and all of a sudden see an engine and the front suspension sitting on the race track -- you're like 'Oh my God, what happened?'

"But the truth of the matter is that's the best thing that can happen, as long as [the pieces] don't intrude into the driver's compartment. The way this [new] car's built, it won't get back in there with [the driver]. So I think it did its job quite well. I know people are going to be shocked by what they see, but the truth of the matter is, that's what the car's supposed to do."

NASCAR said the car would go back to RPM's shop in Concord, N.C., where it would be examined by NASCAR officials, who would determine if further analysis at the NASCAR R&D facility would be necessary.

Sadler, who's been mired in what amounts to a career slump of several seasons in Cup, was on Cloud Nine Saturday. Sunday afternoon was a lot more difficult as, early in the race Sadler spun and ended up in the entrance to pit road. No caution flew and Sadler ended up in a big hole.

“

I'm fine. I'm OK. I'm a little sore, I think, from where the belts grabbed me. It knocked the breath out of me pretty good, but it's definitely the hardest hit I've ever had in a race car. These new cars are built to be safer and if I can get out of that and walk [away], I think it did its job.

”

- ELLIOTT SADLER

"[Saturday] was a great day and it's still a great weekend," Sadler said. "[Winning] was so cool. All my guys on my No. 19 car and everybody at the U.S. Air Force and Stanley and Coca-Cola and everybody called me and congratulated me. That was a great win for us.

"I messed up [Sunday]. I spun out on the frontstretch, but my team didn't give up. We were fighting our way back through it and just didn't make it to the end. I'm just glad I'm OK. I'm glad my team at home does a good job of building safe race cars. I'm still in one piece so it did its job [but] the way it hit the guardrail back there was pretty tough."

Parrott was at the care center and quickly consoled his disconsolate driver.

"I told him we were coming back," Parrott said. "We were racing for the [free pass] to get our lap back and to get back in the race. We were two laps down and almost three laps down and there we were, fighting to get back on the lead lap with 30-something laps to go, maybe. And anything can happen with 30 to go. We had a great car."

It all went for naught as Sadler became the latest victim of a facility that came under some scrutiny again this weekend. Ironically, Sadler's teammates, Kasey Kahne and A.J. Allmendinger triggered an accident here in June -- virtually in the same spot -- that involved nearly 10 cars, with Kahne nearly flying over the backstretch wall and out of the track.

"Unfortunately this place has a history of that," Parrott said. "When you hit that guard rail, with the dirt bank behind it, it just catches it and it just rips the car apart," Parrott said. "Obviously it's a sad thing because the Mattiolis [Doctors Joe and Rose Mattioli, track owners] have a great facility here and they had a great crowd -- and a great race.

"They just need to do some work on the SAFER barriers and all that stuff. I love coming to Pocono. It's a fun race track and obviously Elliott likes it -- he won the race [Saturday] in the Truck Series."

Pocono announced after the June event it would line the inside of the race track with SAFER barriers. The track said it would look at additional safety measures but with only five weeks between its two annual Cup dates, the track had no time to make any of the improvements until 2011.

NASCAR said it would continue to communicate with the track about its concerns.

"The track has a good plan in place that was announced last month and will be completed for the 2011 season," NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp said. "As it is our practice, we continue to work with the tracks and the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to make any recommendations as they may pertain to making improvements at a particular facility."

Race winner Greg Biffle was asked his opinion of Sadler's crash and wasn't sure of all the details. Biffle didn't back off his opinion that changes needed to be made at the track, but he did say he wished he hadn't been so graphic as when he said in a Sports Illustrated story, "they're going to kill somebody [at Pocono]."

"It's dangerous to have grass next to where you're running 200 miles an hour -- that's all there is to it," Biffle said. "It's just the way it is, the way these race tracks have been built forever. This is a great race track. It's so much fun to drive, and Talladega and Daytona had that same issue '[large grass areas inside the track] and they added pavement, like a skid pad or whatever you want to call it, so when the car does get out of control or gets going that direction, you still have some control -- because once you hit the grass, especially with it wet, you're along for the ride [and] it feels like you pick up speed when you get in the wet grass.

"They'll have to look at it. I understand times are tough and we might go a half-dozen races and nobody ever gets in that grass, ever. But this is two races in a row somebody has been over there playing around."

Biffle said putting a wall right inside the track -- not on the other side of a wide grass verge -- was a better solution. He said his experience in June, when Kasey Kahne was forced into the grass on the inside, lost control and came across the track in front of the field, forced him to make his comments (watch video).

"Mark Martin and I hit [Kahne] head on and my neck is still sore from that crash -- that's a dangerous spot on this race track," Biffle said. "They need to [pave the grass] or put a wall up, on the edge of the pavement. It's the only spot on the race track that needs attention, and I'm glad they're going to do it.

"Look at the frontstretch -- it's got a wall on the inside. You need a wall on the edge of the pavement, or like Daytona did -- just pave [over the grass]. You wouldn't have to do a lot of [preparation] because you're not going to be racing on it -- just make a skid pad."

Biffle said he appreciated every positive step race tracks make.

"We applaud the race tracks for doing safety stuff for us and we understand that the times are tough -- and they need to do fan items," Biffle said. "We need to cater to the fans in the infield, whether it's concessions or bathrooms, and accommodate them and all that. But, certainly, we all appreciate, 100 percent of them thinking of us on the race track and the safety of the drivers out there. We can never do too much for safety and we're blessed to have the things that have gone on in our sport [that] have probably saved a lot of lives because of what we've done since then."

Related:
• Pocono planning improvements, safety upgrades