INDIANAPOLIS – Ryan Blaney’s No. 12 Ford rear tire change was slammed and pinned against Team Penske’s car on Lap 16 of the NASCAR Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday afternoon. Fortunately, crew member Zach Price smiled and gave a thumbs-up when the AMR security team placed him on a stretcher and he appears to be ‘OK’.
The incident occurred near the start of the pit road during Stage 1 on lap 16 during NASCAR’s first warning of the 160-lap competition. Initially it was unclear what caused the accident, but two cars ended up on the side while Blaney was already in his pits.
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Justin Allgaier passed dangerously close to Price to the right of number 12, and as the crewman jumped to try to miss number 48, the video showed that he may have been initially hit, although Allgaier’s crew chief Cliff Daniels told the Radio driver was not to blame.
Following Allgaier’s possible close foul, Brennan Poole also veered left into the pit lane, trying to lose the heap and pinned Price’s legs and lower torso against the right rear of Blaney’s car. Price was able to get away from the chaos, and they quickly treated him and then took him to the hospital for further evaluation. The build-up also caused a red flag for several minutes as the entire butcher shop was assessed and cleaned up, following the one-hour weather delay before the race.
At just 24 feet wide, the pit lane at IMS is the narrowest on the NASCAR circuit.
In all, nearly 10 cars were involved in the pit-road crash, and ended the days of Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Preece, Corey LaJoie, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Poole, and Allgaier.
For Allgaier and the rest of the Hendricks Motorsports team at No. 48, the early end of their day was particularly frustrating, less than 48 hours after the team announced that four-time Brickyard 400 champion Jimmie Johnson had tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday night. The team slipped Allgaier, the Xfinity Series rider who finished seventh on Saturday afternoon in the Pennzoil 150 on the IMS circuit, in Johnson’s seat for the time being, while on the sidelines for at least the next two weeks. . After a 14-day quarantine, you must be cleared by a doctor and receive two negative COVID-19 tests before you can return to the cabin.
Email IndyStar motorsports reporter Nathan Brown at [email protected] Follow him on Twitter: @By_NathanBrown.
