El Cajon, Calif. The government sent investigators Tuesday to examine a Prius that sped out of control on a California freeway, and Toyota said it wanted to interview the driver as the besieged automaker dealt with a high-profile new headache that raised questions about the safety of its beloved hybrid.

A day after state troopers helped the car slow to a stop and driver James Sikes to emerge unharmed, Toyota could shed no new light on what might have gone wrong. The Prius is not part of Toyota's vast recall of gas pedals that can become stuck, but it is covered by an earlier recall of floor mats that can catch the accelerator.

The freeway incident came at a bad time for Toyota - just hours after it invited reporters Monday to hear experts insist that electronic flaws could not cause cars to speed out of control under real driving conditions.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sent two investigators to examine the car, a government spokeswoman said. Toyota Motor Corp. spokesman Brian Lyons said the automaker is sending three of its own technicians.

Sikes' car, a 2008 model, was covered by the floor mat recall, but he said Monday's incident was triggered when the pedal jammed and was not trapped under the mat. He said the car reached 94 mph before a trooper, calling out instructions from a megaphone, helped him slow down and turn off the engine.

Sikes, 61, was identified in a 2006 newspaper story as a real estate executive and longtime lottery player who won $55,000 and was selected to appear on a California Lottery TV game show.

He appeared at a news conference quickly after the freeway incident Monday and also spoke to reporters Tuesday at his Toyota dealership, where his car was towed.

Toyota has watched its reputation for quality crumble because of recalls tied to risks that cars can accelerate uncontrollably or can't brake properly. The company is defending itself against suggestions that bad electronics are to blame for the problem - not simpler mechanical flaws, as Toyota maintains.

The runaway Prius only makes Toyota's image problem worse, said Larry Smith, president of the Institute for Crisis Management in Louisville, Ky. - even if video only showed the aftermath, with the Prius resting behind the patrol car.

The Sikes family received a recall notice and took the Prius to Toyota of El Cajon about two weeks ago, but the dealership refused to examine the car, saying it was not on the recall list, said Sikes' wife, Patty.

The dealership declined to comment and referred requests for comment to Toyota's corporate representatives. A spokesman said Toyota first sends a preliminary notice to owners saying their vehicles are subject to a recall. A second notice comes later detailing how and where the vehicle can be fixed.

"I believe what could have happened is Mr. Sikes could have received his preliminary notification which says, 'Hello, your car is going to be recalled, and we will notify you when to bring it in,' " the spokesman said.

A deadly crash last year about 12 miles from where Sikes' Prius started speeding first sparked scrutiny into Toyota cars and trucks.

CHP Officer Mark Saylor, his wife, her brother and the couple's daughter died after the accelerator in their Lexus became trapped by a wrong-sized floor mat on a freeway in La Mesa. The loaner car hit a sport-utility vehicle and burst into flames.

Since then, Toyota has recalled 8.5 million vehicles worldwide - more than 6 million in the United States - because of acceleration problems in multiple models and braking issues in the Prius. Regulators have linked 52 deaths to crashes allegedly caused by accelerator problems. Still, there have been more than 60 reports of sudden acceleration in cars that have been fixed under the recall.