Crewmember Injured After Bizarre Accident on Pit Road at Indy

Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was a stop and go affair early on.  The start was delayed for 55 minutes due to lightning in the area but was stopped again after just 15 of 160 laps were complete because of a major pile-up on pit road.

The chain-reaction crash started near the back of the line of cars entering the pits for a competition caution when the No. 15 Chevrolet of Brennan Poole was pushed from behind and into the No. 48 which was being driven by Justin Allgaier in relief of Jimmie Johnson. The 48 was shoved into the side of Ryan Blaney’s Team Penske No. 12 Ford and the contact squeezed Penske tire-changer Zach Price between the two cars. Allgaier is making his first Cup Series start since 2016 as a substitute for Johnson, who revealed a positive test for COVID-19 on Friday.

The field was stopped on the backstretch as medical crews attended to Price. TV cameras showed Price gave a thumbs-up as he was loaded into an ambulance, and initial reports were that he was being treated for a leg injury. He was later transported to a local hospital for further evaluation.

The cars of Corey LaJoie, Justin Allgaier, Ryan Preece and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. were also among those involved. All were soon out of the race.   The red flag lasted 11 minutes, 17 seconds.

“Starting in the back trying to go forward, the No. 15 (Brennan Poole) actually got in the back of me,” Allgaier said. “I didn’t know if I got (hit) the gentleman on the No. 12 (Ryan Blaney’s crew member) or not. Once the wreck started happening in front of us and we all got bottled-up there, one car after another were getting run into.”

Greg Engle