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 Five specatators were injured and champion driver Jimmie Johnson
said he was surprised Dillon survived his car being lifted into the
air and onto a catch fence surrounding the track.
"It's not the greatest feeling in the world," Dillon said Tuesday on
The Today Show. "When the car flips over you know it's getting ready
to be a rough ride. You hold on with all you've got. When it hit the
fence, I didn't really know where I was, I was still kind of holding
on talking myself through the wreck and after we landed back on the
ground, I was thinking it almost over and then the worst part of the
crash was the very end when the two cars slid into me."
Dillon said he expects to be back in his car this weekend. Unlike
peers who had harsh words for NASCAR and restrictor-plate racing,
Dillon said the safety advancements in the sports likely saved him
when he landed in a multi-car pileup early Monday morning as Dale
Earnhardt Jr. crossed the finish line.
"You see a wreck like that, you shouldn't be talking to a person as
early as you're talking to me today," Dillon told NBC on Tuesday.
Dillon's accident led to a safety review at Daytona and NASCAR
officials said it would be an urgent matter to find out what the
track and the sport can do better.
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When Dillon's airborne car landed in the fence, a massive hole was
ripped in the restraining barrier.
"An accident like last (Dillon's), boy it sure takes your breath
away," NASCAR chairman Brian France said. "And it should. But that's
auto racing. And we're working on better solutions all the time to
make racing safer and better. ... We have an entire group of people
that woke up this morning trying to figure out how we make this
better (and) make sure the cars don't elevate."
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