Hearn takes blame for Dixon crash.
On a day where drivers and team owners alike deferred blame on accidents either involving themselves or their drivers, Richie Hearn's well-known humility saw him accept responsibility for his crash with former IRL Champion Scott Dixon.
Although Hearn was not running on the lead lap at the time of his turn one incident with Dixon on lap 114 both he and the New Zealander may have been victims of Jeff Bucknum's slower machine, which led to a pack of nearly half a dozen cars heading towards turn one two and three abreast.
On a day where drivers and team owners alike deferred blame on accidents either involving themselves or their drivers, Richie Hearn's well-known humility saw him accept responsibility for his crash with former IRL Champion Scott Dixon.
Although Hearn was not running on the lead lap at the time of his turn one incident with Dixon on lap 114 both he and the New Zealander may have been victims of Jeff Bucknum's slower machine, which led to a pack of nearly half a dozen cars heading towards turn one two and three abreast.
Although TV replays showed that Hearn's Sam Schmidt Motorsport run Panoz-Chevrolet did come down on the advancing Target Chip Ganassi Racing Panoz-Toyota, in such a thick pack of cars, several racing amongst each other on different laps, eventual contact was to be expected.
I didn't see Scott," admitted Hearn, who was running just inside the top 20, one lap off the pace at the time of the crash. "It was my fault. There was a lot going on out there, and I just didn't see him. I feel bad for (owner) Sam Schmidt and the Meijer crew because they gave me a good car, and we could have had a pretty good finish."
Both cars made rear first contact with the outside SAFER barriers in turn one and despite the level of damage done to both machines, their occupants were able to walk away unaided.
"I banged my knee pretty hard on the dash, and it's starting to swell up a bit," commented Hearn, who was classified 25th overall, one place behind Dixon.
Dixon, who had made his way into the top ten at the time of the crash in the quickest of Chip Ganassi's three entries, was understandably disappointed with his second accident related DNF in three attempts at the Indianapolis 500.
"There was a bit of a mess in front of us and I don't think Hearn knew I was there at all and just dipped down leaving me nowhere to go," said the 2003 IRL Champion. "I'm especially disappointed for this Target team because they really put a lot of effort in every day and the car was really good and had the potential to finish really strongly."
