Incredible escapes: The worst crashes in motorsport history
NASCAR Cup Series - Coke Zero Suga 400 2022 - Daytona International Speedway
The final race of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series regular season showed why stock cars don't race in the rain on superspeedways.
A light shower at Daytona wreaked havoc with 23 laps to go in the 160-lap encounter, causing several cars to spin and set off a chain reaction resulting in a mammoth pile-up.
The crash had permutations for several drivers – including wrecked race leader Daniel Suarez in the No.99 – who needed a win to secure their place in the playoffs.
Some 20 cars were involved in the melee, leaving NASCAR icon turned pundit Dale Earnhardt Jr. in awe.
"Oh my god!" he screamed as the cars crashed.
"Unbelievable. Unbelievable! I've never seen racing that intense in Daytona. Never."
Out the other side of the smoke came Austin Dillon, whose No.3 Chevrolet Camaro stood atop the pilon as the race was red flagged having been 15th prior to pile-up.
After a lengthy three-hour delay, racing resumed with only a handful of cars left, mostly beaten and bruised.
In the end, Dillon survived a sprint to the finish and claimed victory to secure his spot in the playoffs.
Thomas Randle, Andre Heimgartner | Supercars at The Bend, July 31 2022
Thomas Randle will undergo scans on an ankle injury suffered in the horror start line shunt with Andre Heimgartner at The Bend on Sunday.
The pair were taken to hospital for checks after the crash, and released Sunday night.
Randle was to undergo an MRI on Monday.
In an instagram post, Heimgartner confirmed he hadn't suffered any breaks in the crash, which registered 38Gs.
Zhou Guanyu - British Grand Prix - 2022
Zhou Guanyu was involved in a frightening first-lap crash that brought the 2022 British Grand Prix to an immediate halt.
The crash occurred when Pierre Gasly clipped George Russell, sending Russell's Mercedes into Guanyu's Alfa Romeo.
Guanyu's Alfa Romeo slid upside-down across the road and gravel on the halo, and his car became wedged between fencing and a tyre barrier at the first corner.
Not for the first time in Formula 1, a driver's life had been saved by the halo.
The Chinese driver miraculously emerged unscathed, passing an assessment at the medical centre.
The race was red-flagged and Ferrari's Carlos Sainz eventually won.
Zhou Guanyu - British Grand Prix - 2022
After being flipped over on the opening lap of the British Grand Prix, the roll hoop on Zhou Guanyu's car dug into the surface and was ripped off.
Sky Sports' Craig Slater posted this photo to Twitter, showing the damage, which is right on the racing line.
Driving for Alfa Romeo, Zhoe slid upside down for more than 100 metres along the asphalt before barrel rolling into the catch fence at the first corner.
Zhou tweeted on the Monday afternoon (AEST) after the race that he was "all clear".
"I'm OK, all clear. Halo saved me today. Thanks everyone for your kind messages!" he wrote.
Zhou Guanyu - British Grand Prix - 2022
George Russell, who ran from his car to help Zhou Guanyu, called it "one of the scariest crashes I've ever seen".
Russell was declared out of the race by the FIA because his Mercedes was loaded onto a truck to be taken back to the pits while he was checking on Zhou. Mercedes protested the call, but the FIA did not budge.
Alex Albon - British Grand Prix - 2022
Alex Albon of Williams was also taken to the medical centre before his team said he'd been transferred by helicopter to Coventry Hospital for a precautionary check.
Albon spun into the pit wall after being struck by Sebastian Vettel from behind as drivers tried to avoid the incident involving Guanyu.
Roy Nissany - British F2 feature race - 2022
The halo almost certainly saved the life of a Formula 2 driver when Roy Nissany and Dennis Hauger had a frightening collision during the 2022 British feature race.
The race was rocked on the opening lap when Nissany forced his rival off the track.
Hauger's Prema car hit the inside sausage kerb and launched into the air, before the car's forward sidepod and floor section cannoned into Nissany's halo as the Israeli navigated Vale.
Nissany would almost definitely be dead if not for the halo, introduced in 2018.
British Formula 1 presenter and reporter Will Buxton described the Formula 2 crash as a "horrible accident".
Both drivers emerged unscathed.
Fernando Alonso - Melbourne - 2016
Fernando Alonso's 2016 Australian Grand Prix ended with his McLaren-Honda being totally destroyed at turn three, the same corner where Martin Brundle had a massive accident 20 years earlier.
On lap 17, Alonso was battling with the Haas of Esteban Gutierrez, with Alonso's right-front tyre clipping the left rear of Gutierrez.
The Spaniard was subjected to a 46g impact that left him with broken ribs, but he was able to climb from the shattered remains of the McLaren.
"I am lucky to be here and thankful to be here," said Alonso after the race.
"I am aware that today I spent some of the luck remaining in life. I want to thank McLaren and the FIA for the safety of this car. I am alive thanks to the job of the last 10-15 years in Formula 1.
"I was flying, so you see the sky then the ground, then the sky, then the ground. You want to stop but it doesn't stop. It keeps going and going and going. It was quite scary, but at the last moment the car stopped and I had a little space to go out and I said: 'I will go out quickly because my mother will be watching at home'."
Stan Fox - Indianapolis 500 - 1995
Stan Fox was a regular at Indianapolis, and was making his eighth start when he was involved in this terrifying accident in 1995.
After spinning and collecting the car of Eddie Cheever, Fox hit the outside wall, tearing the front of the car clean off.
Fox suffered serious head injuries in the crash, which left him in a coma for five days, at one point requiring surgery to relieve a blood clot on his brain.
He spent 10 weeks in rehab after the accident, but the road to recovery was a long one. He was unable to speak for more than a month after the accident.
"I started from scratch," he told the Associated Press in 1999. "I started like a 4-year-old. I had to learn everything."
The accident ended Fox's motor racing career. He was killed five years later in a road crash while holidaying in New Zealand. He was 48.
Scott Dixon - Indianapolis - 2017
Scott Dixon was lucky to walk away from this violent crash during the 2017 Indianapolis 500.
On lap 53, Jay Howard (car No.77) lost control coming off turn two, sliding into the path of Dixon, who was launched off the back of Howard's car.
Dixon's car hit the inside wall of the track, ripping a hole in the catch fencing.
"At that point, everything just slows down so much that it actually felt like it took a couple minutes to get through that whole crash," Dixon said later.
"I remember seeing Jay, realising I couldn't really turn away from it, hitting him, being airborne, looking down and thinking, 'Wow, I'm really high.'"
"When I finally landed I was sitting up looking at the crowd and I saw the whole back of a car missing and I was like, 'Wow, I hope that person's OK.' When I got out, I actually realised it was my car."
