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For NASCAR fans, it was a heart-stopping sequence pulled from a nightmare. On the final lap of Monday’s Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway, the famed No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet piloted by Austin Dillon was catapulted over several cars and into the catch fence.

The horrific scene has since been replayed and rehashed countless times on sportscasts, news programs, talk shows and social media sites.

As NASCAR drivers, officials and fans debated what caused the crash and what can be done to prevent similar incidents, an upbeat Dillon met with the media during a teleconference Tuesday.

Even Dillon seemed stunned by the surreal image of his 3,400-pound car soaring the air and then finally landing upside down.

“I watched a lot of videos, and just watching it in live speed, it is violent looking.  It's a wicked crash,” Dillon said. “When you see the fence … the thing just blows apart.”

Except for a couple bruises and some soreness, Dillon came away unscathed from the death-defying wild ride. But he said the emotions of the crash hit home when he talked to his family.

“I wasn't shaken, and I was just kind of telling my parents, I'm okay, I'm okay,” Dillon said. “You could see how upset they were, and I hadn't seen the real footage of the wreck.  I knew it was bad but I didn't know how bad.”

Dillon said the post-race chat with his brother, Ty, was sobering.

“It was another level because he was upset, and hearing him on the phone … it was like, man, I'm going to have to watch this, because he's a tough guy,” Dillon said. “To hear him be upset about it and worried about me, it was like, all right, I need to look at this wreck.

“You can see where a guy watching it from home not knowing how I was and the pit crew kind of running out to the car … it was pretty dramatic right there for 30 seconds, 38 seconds or so.”

After ripping into the catch fence, Dillon’s car careened back onto the track. As fans and drivers gasped, the mangled ride was slammed again by the Brad Keselowski Ford. The motor from the Dillon car actually landed on the infield grass. While Dale Earnhardt Jr. powered to a popular victory, his crew members rushed to the scene to check on Dillon.

“As soon as they got to the car I felt pretty comfortable, there was people around that we were going to be okay,” Dillon said. “The biggest fear as a driver is probably fire … so the oil kind of running around the car at that point, I just wanted to get out.   I told them I was okay, and worked my way out of the car and got away from it.

“I knew the whole time where I was. But I didn't know where I was on the track, if I was hitting get by a car or what it was because
it happened so fast, obviously.”

Dillon offered his version of the entire last-lap sequence which escalated when drivers scrambled for the fastest drafting partners and the best position to make a dramatic charge to victory.

“When we took the white flag, I was riding behind Jeff [Gordon] and giving him a good shove down the backstretch and just trying to gain as many positions as we could on the bottom line,” Dillon said. “I knew that we were going to have a good finish there.”

The drama took a new turn when the cars driven by Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin bumped at the finish line of the iconic 2.5-mile
track.

“We we're starting to roll on the gas, we're still wide open right there, and the 11 [Hamlin], when it got turned, it threw sparks everywhere,”
Dillon said. “I kind of knew that we were in a bad situation at that point, when he was turned in front of us.
 
“The car, when he connected with us, it was kind of really quick at that point.  I just remember getting launched up, and then the first violent part of the wreck was when we turned upside down.  It just happened so quick, and I knew at that point I had already… it was going to be big.”

Dillon tensed his body and gripped the wheel hard as the crash played out. Those sort of preparations can only help so much.

“As we came down, I was just kind of talking to myself the whole time, like you're almost through it, you're almost through it, hold on, hold on. And then I thought it was over, and then when Brad came through and hit us at the end, it was pretty hard, that last lick.

“But shortly thereafter, I mean, it felt like no time that there was guys at my car.”

After a few tense moments, Dillon emerged from underneath his car and saluted the fans. It was a sign of triumph that will long be
remembered.

According to estimates from his friends, Dillon was zooming around the track at 198 at the time of his accident. But there was no time for
hesitation over the final five laps.

“You've got to put yourself in a position to win,” Dillon said. “You start taking more risk and higher risk, and at the end, with three to go, you're pretty much checkers or wreckers is the way it's looked at.  I know that statement is used before, but it really is.”

As for the headache-inducing, close-quarters drama, Dillon feels it’s just part of the chess game that is restrictor plate racing

“It's three-wide pack racing, and at Daytona it's tighter than Talladega, there's less room,” Dillon said. “I think if you're at Talladega, this wreck might not happen because it's a little bit wider.  But it's just a part of the racing that we're in right now.”

Dillon, who has made several national media appearances since Monday’s fantastic finish, is open to any changes that will lead to increased safety for drivers and fans.

“I think we can do things to help slow down some of the wrecks and might keep us from catching air, but we'll just have to see the direction that NASCAR goes,” he said. “Maybe they'll ask the drivers their opinions, and we can give them a good opinion to kind of go together to make the racing still stay the same.

“I feel like we can create good racing because up until that wreck we had some really good racing Monday morning, but I think the wreck kind of tarnished
a great race.”