news-record.com

DOVER, Del. —- Around and around, Joey Logano rolled unsure of when his car would finally come to rest after barrel rolling more than seven times in Sunday's race at Dover International Speedway.

"It scared the heck out of me," Logano said as he continued shaking more than 20 minutes after the accident. "It started rolling and I was in there like, please make this thing stop. It just kept going and going.

"It was the wildest ride I've ever been on. You can't go on a roller coaster worse than that."

The incident started when midpack cars jumbled and Logano had to slow. He was hit from behind by Tony Stewart. The contact sent Logano sliding down the track across the grass inside turn 3 and then back up the track into traffic. He began barrel rolling after he hit the wall and was stuck by Reed Sorenson's car.

"I've never felt sicker in my life than when we hit Joey like that," Stewart said. "We hit him a ton. I didn't see it coming. That was the worst part. Something happened in front of him to make him (slow), and I don't know what it was. When he did, we drilled him in a spot where we were supposed to be wide-open on the race track."

RECOVERY: Tony Stewart's car suffered right-front and right-rear damage in the incident with Joey Logano. Stewart fell as far back as 37th as his team repaired his car. He went on to finish ninth — his first top-10 in the last six races.

"I can't say I'm satisfied because I still lost points," he said, referring to finishing behind points leader Mark Martin. "That's how competitive this Chase is. I got a top-10 and I'm not happy with it. I'm proud of the effort from the team, really proud of that. We dodged another bullet."

STRONG RUN: Since it was announced that crew chief Pat Tryson would leave Kurt Busch's team after this season, Busch has scored three consecutive top-10 finishes. He placed second at Richmond, sixth at New Hampshire and was fifth at Dover.

"We put it up front most of the day and put ourselves in position (to win), but a couple of guys were quicker than us at the end," said Busch, who led 99 laps.

FRANCE SURPRISED: NASCAR Chairman Brian France says series officials were surprised that the ratings for last weekend's New Hampshire race were down about 15 percent from the same event a year ago. NASCAR saw modest TV ratings growth for some of its August races.

"The rating last week wasn't what we thought it was going to be but it's just one race," France said before Sunday's race at Dover. "The reality of it is that the racing was probably the best we've had at Loudon in a long, long time. The Chase has got the right storylines, the right things going. The racing is very good, so we're happy with that."

PIT STOPS: Matt Kenseth's third-place finish was his best finish since he opened the season by winning at Daytona and California. He finished fourth at Dover earlier this year. ... AJ Allmendinger's seventh-place finish was his best result since placing seventh at Infineon Raceway in June. ... Jimmie Johnson led 271 laps Sunday. He led 298 laps at Dover when he won the May race.

Contact Dustin Long at 373-7062 or dustin.long@news-record.com