Aric Almirola alert, conscious after crash involving Joey Logano, Danica Patrick
— -- KANSAS CITY, Kan. --? Danica Patrick's frustrating season continued Saturday night at Kansas Speedway when a broken brake rotor on Joey Logano's car sent them both into the wall and left Aric Almirola nowhere to go.
Almirola plowed into Logano's car as it skidded along the wall, the force of their impact sending the rear of Almirola's No. 43 car into the air. Almirola's car came to rest near the outside fence. He immediately dropped the window net by the driver's side door to indicate he was conscious, but safety crews had to cut off the roof to safely get him out.
He was placed on a backboard, taken away in an ambulance and then airlifted to University of Kansas Medical Center.?He was conscious and alert throughout.
Logano said everything was fine in his car but then something broke in the right front of the car?"just out of nowhere."?
"I tried to back off, but you're going 215 [mph] and it's hard to check up, and the car just took a big step sideways into the corner," he said after being released from the infield care center. "I'm OK. Just saying prayers for Aric right now."?
Patrick got out of her flaming car after it came to rest on the apron. When Logano tried to speak to her as they got into an ambulance, Patrick appeared to brusquely brush him off.
"I told him, 'I'm not sure if it was you, but I'm pretty sure it was you,'" she said. "Then he said it was a failure of some sort, which didn't make me feel better in that moment. I hope Aric is OK. He's definitely feeling the worst of everybody.''
Patrick was released from the care center at the speedway. She said she was OK physically, but lamented her bad luck.?
It was the third time in four races that her night ended in a wreck. She also crashed out of the season-opening Daytona 500 and had engine trouble at Las Vegas.
All that misfortune had left her 31st in points entering the weekend, and has raised speculation that she might walk away from NASCAR's top series after this season.?
"Every time I'm doing better, something stupid happens," she said. "It's just killing me. I kind of felt like Wonder Woman out there for a little while.
"I just don't understand why so much bad luck happens."?
Patrick and Logano were running just outside the top 10 with 67 laps to go.
Almirola was running about 10 spots behind Logano and Patrick when the crash occurred. The debris that was scattered across the track caused a red flag, stopping the race for nearly 30 minutes.
Overheating brakes had been a problem for several drivers Saturday night. Once the red flag was finally lifted and cars began rolling off, Clint Bowyer told his team over the radio he was concerned about the heat building up in his brakes.
Martin Truex Jr. won the race, pulling away on the final restart. Brad Keselowski?finished second.
"It's a dangerous sport," Keselowski said. "It always has been. It always will be. Sometimes we forget that and maybe take for granted that you see real hard hits and people walk away and then you see one where someone doesn't and it puts things back into perspective just how dangerous it can be."?
Information from ESPN's Bob Pockrass and The Associated Press was used in this report.?
Related Stories
ABC News Live