Dax Shepard recalls near-death experience as a teen when his car 'rolled 10 times'

Dax Shepard revealed he nearly died during his senior year in high school when his buddy drove him from Toledo to Detroit in a Ford Probe.

'It was like late at night, and I had to work super early in the morning. So I go, "Hey, I'm gonna sleep in the back. Are you good to drive?"' the 51-year-old Armchair Expert co-host recalled on his podcast Monday.

'[He said] "Yeah, I'm totally fine." He had the cruise control on 85.'

Shepard's friend was not, in fact, fine and wound up falling asleep behind the wheel.

'And then I just heard gravel hitting the side of the car. And I immediately looked up and he was completely slumped over,' the Idiocracy alum remembered.

'I started to [try] to grab the wheel and there was a moment where I just knew it was too far gone. Like, we had gone completely sideways. I laid back down and then we just launched in the air and we started rolling right down the highway.'

At that moment, Shepard was terrified they'd careen into the many pine trees lining that particular interstate in Michigan 'and that's gonna be that.'

'I definitely had this moment where I was like, "Oh wow, I'm going to die in a second." And the feeling was shockingly comforting like that,' the Ted Segers Brew co-founder recalled.

'I remember I went from like complete fear, "S*** the car is out of control. Oh my god, we're going to roll. F***, we're rolling. Oh, right. We're going to roll into a tree. I'm going to die."'

Shepard continued: 'Like all that calculus. And then I just went like and I got very calm. Like the whatever thing they give you, the DMT or whatever the weird chemical is did definitely start getting released...I was weirdly at total peace with it.'

The car then rolled '10 times' and 'ended up upside down.'

'We did not hit a tree,' the 6ft3in funnyman confirmed. 'We crawled out the windows. My friend was okay and I was okay.'

Shepard - who questioned whether he had died for three days afterwards - called the near-death experience 'highly memorable' and he still refuses to sleep when someone else is driving.

On March 28, the Groundlings alum and his wife Kristen Bell will celebrate the 13th birthday of their daughter Lincoln, and they're also proud parents of 11-year-old daughter Delta.

Shepard and the 45-year-old Frozen alum limited comments on their Instagram accounts, and Kristen cancelled a scheduled TODAY appearance following controversy over her tone deaf wedding anniversary post from October 17.

Bell wrote: 'Happy 12th wedding anniversary to the man who once said to me: "I would never kill you. A lot of men have killed their wives at a certain point. Even though I'm heavily incentivized to kill you, I never would."'

To make matters worse, October was Domestic Violence Awareness month.

The inseparable pair have acted together in Family Game Fight (2022), HouseBroken (2021), Ultra City Smiths (2021), The Good Place (2018), CHiPs (2017), Terrific Trucks (2016), The Boss (2016), Veronica Mars (2014), Hit and Run (2012), and When in Rome (2010).

The self-described 'polar opposites' originally met at a dinner party in 2007.

For the third time in a row, Bell will be back as host for the newly renamed 32nd Actor Awards, which air March 1 on Netflix.

Last November, Netflix renewed Erin Foster's rom-com series Nobody Wants This for a third season set to premiere in 2026, so the Children's and Family Emmy winner will be back as dating podcaster Joanne Williams.

The NWT cast and crew are scheduled to reunite for PaleyFest LA on April 8 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood for a screening and Q&A.

Bell will also portray Mrs. Claus in Tommy Wirkola's Christmas horror-comedy sequel Violent Night 2 - hitting US/UK theaters December 4 - alongside David Harbour and Joe Pantoliano.

The 50-year-old Stranger Things star reprises his role from the 2022 first film, which amassed $76.6 million at the global box office from a $20 million budget.