Fan whose automobile was broken by flying tire at Indianapolis 500 will obtain new trip

INDIANAPOLIS — An Indianapolis 500 fan whose car was broken when a tire flew off a race automobile and out of the observe in the course of the race will obtain a brand new automobile, an Indianapolis Motor Speedway spokesperson mentioned.

The spokesperson advised The Indianapolis Star that Penske Leisure will present fan Robin Matthews, who’s from Indianapolis, with a brand new automobile following the incident.

“I didn’t see it come down,” she mentioned. “I got here down and so they mentioned, ‘Robin, it’s your automobile!’ I believed, ‘No.’ I believed someone was pranking me. It’s a automobile. It’s fantastic.”

The wheel got here off with lower than 20 laps to go in Sunday’s race when Felix Rosenqvist and Kyle Kirkwood collided. Kirkwood’s left rear tire bounced off the observe and over the fence and the nook of the grandstand within the second flip earlier than touchdown in a parking zone. It traveled about 350 yards (320 meters) earlier than crashing into the entrance of Matthews’ parked Chevrolet Cruze.

A purple flag halted the race after the crash, and two extra purple flags adopted earlier than Josef Newgarden received by beating Marcus Ericsson in a one-lap shootout.

One spectator obtained remedy on the infield medical heart with minor accidents associated to mess flying. An IMS spokesman mentioned on the time that there have been no accidents associated to the tire

IndyCar proprietor Roger Penske says he’s sure sequence officers will examine what led to the tire crusing over the catch fence and grandstands.

“We have not had a wheel come off in a very long time,” Penske mentioned. “We had been very lucky we did not have a nasty accident.”

___

Extra AP auto racing