Scary Indy 500 Crash Sends Tire Over Catchfence, Disaster Avoided

There were three red flags within the last 20 minutes of the Indianapolis 500, but it was the one with 14 laps remaining that really caused a scare. Felix Rosenvist lost control of his Arrow McLaren Chevrolet in Turn 1, then collected Andretti Autosport driver Kyle Kirkwood, who went updside down. The left-rear tire on Kirkwood's car separated and flew into the air, over the catchfence, and nearly into the spectator stands.

The good news is that tragedy was avoided, and no serious injuries were reported. The tire landed on a white car in a parking lot outside of the turn, and suffered significant damage. Security personel surrounded the scene, but disaster was avoided.

Kirkwood was not harmed in the incident, which caught him by surprise. "Everything happened so quick," he said. "All I’ve heard is I was up in the fence, which is never a good thing. Thank God these cars are safe. It could have been a lot worse. I was seeing sparks flying everywhere. That was the scary part because you’re upside down and kind of stuck at that point."

After a 14-minute red flag, the race was restarted on Lap 187. More carnage awaited, as the series elected to throw the red flag once again to try to get a green-flag finish. It was Josef Newgarden that made the most of it, passing defending race winner Marcus Ericsson on the final lap to earn his first Indy 500 in his 12th attempt. It is the 19th win at Indianapolis for team owner Roger Penske.

Penske said the series will investigate the incident with the tire that came off. "I saw what had happened," he said. "I saw it bounced on top of a building and went and hit a car over there, which obviously is very concerning. We have tethers on the wheels, and it was a rear wheel that came off, and I’m sure the guys at IndyCar will look at it to determine what really happened. We haven’t seen a wheel come off in a long time. We have high fences here. But we were very fortunate we didn’t have a bad accident."