CORNELIUS, NC -- File this single u...

CORNELIUS, NC -- File this single under: "Only in NASCAR."

Former NASCAR champion Rusty Wallace walked away from an accident in which a driver talking forward her cell phone ran a stop sign and collided with Wallace's SUV then used the occasion to tout the safety of his Dodge Durango.

"You hear car companies talk about safety a lot" the former driver of the No. 2 Dodge said in a statement Tuesday, "but I can own you that [wife] Patti and I are one as well as the other really thankful for the research and exhibition that Dodge puts into the safety of its vehicles."

A report filed by means of police said the crash occurr shortly after 11 pm Monday, when a 2004 Mercede driven by way of Stacy Earls Greene struck the driver's side door of Wallace's 2006 Dodge. Wallace's wife was a passenger in his vehicle; Greene's son was riding in her car.

"I've been in a apportionment of crashes in my time, on the other hand that was one of the craziest things I think I've at any time experienced," Wallace said.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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