NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Michael McDowell was involved in a huge crash Friday during qualifying for Sunday's Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

McDowell, who will start his second career Sprint Cup race Sunday at Texas for Michael Waltrip Racing, lost control heading into turn one on lap two of his qualifying effort. Watch below at the 0:20 mark as McDowell careens into the wall at 180mph and then flips violently down the track.

McDowell walked away from easily the most violent crash of the Car of Tomorrow era in the Sprint Cup Series. The new car is designed to protect drivers even more in situations like this one.

Following the crash, McDowell was released from the infield care center and interviewed on SPEED Channel:

"Fortunately, I'm OK. That's one of the worst wrecks I've seen in awhile," said McDowell. "I feel great. Nothing's broke, I didn't pass out, I just wish I didn't over correct."

After viewing the replay, the rookie McDowell was quite thankful.

"Thanks to the guys back at the shop. They work hard to make these cars extra safe," said McDowell. "I will count my blessings after this one."

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The impact damaged the SAFER barrier -- a wall that absorbs an impact by allowing foam blocks to take the energy away from a car -- and halted the qualifying session for over an hour as crews worked to fix it.

SPEED television commentator Darrell Waltrip called it the "wildest wreck I've seen in years" while his brother, McDowell's team owner, made a good point about the safety of the sport.

"Just think about the money. There's a lot of people that have spent a lot of money to make that car safe and those walls safe so that kid could walk from it. You can't put a price on that," said Michael Waltrip.

Indeed, McDowell's wreck was one of the scariest-looking crashes in NASCAR in a long time, and for him to walk away from it so easily truly says something about the safety advances of the sport.