Scary Indy 500 Crash Sends Tire Past Fans And Into Parked Car (UPDATED)

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Indycars can travel well over 220 MPH at the Indianapolis 500, so naturally the largely-carbon-fiber Dallara DW-12 chassis that the vehicles are built on have been developed with safety in mind. One of many safety enablers is the concept of the “tether,” whose job it is to keep all the various bits that are meant to absorb crash energy by breaking off the main “safety cell” from flying off onto the racetrack or into the stands. Tethers are used to hold aero bits, but they’re best known for making sure the wheels and suspension stay with the car when they break off. Apparently one tether at today’s race failed, because a car launched its wheel and tire assembly way out into the parking lot and onto a poor unsuspecting Chevy Cruze.

The Indianapolis 500 is underway, and with over 230,000 tickets sold it’s supposed to be among the biggest in the race’s over-100-year history. It’s an exciting event, with crazy parties happening in the stands, but especially in the infield’s “Snake Pit,” and just outside the speedway in the “Coke Lot.” But though the Indy 500 can feel like it’s all about parties, the race itself is a lot of fun to follow, and not just for the high-speed crashes.

Still, while I don’t love the idea of covering only car crashes (as there’s more to racing than the dangerous part that can get people killed), I’ve just been informed of a wild one unlike any I’ve ever seen:

Wow! The Indy Star explains what happened, writing:

With less than 20 laps to go in Sunday’s Indianapolis 500, Felix Rosenqvist and Kyle Kirkwood collided and Kirkwood’s rear left tire bounced off the track and headed toward — but over — the crowd in Turn 2.

It was a terrifying site as the tire flew up over the outer fencing and headed toward the grandstand. A red flag was waved to halt the race. According to Nick Criser who was in the area, the tire thankfully missed the crowd.

Here’s a look at the tire flying over the stands (see red circle):

And here’s the Chevy Cruze that took a beating from that wheel/tire (also below that in the replies to the tweet is a slow motion look at the crash:

Here you can see what appears to be the tire crashing into the Cruze:

And here’s a look at the parking lot, for context:

Perhaps the most important clip you need to see is this one:

Kirkwood, whose car was sliding upside down at an absurd speed, is safe.

Oh, and if you want to learn more about tethers, check it out:

UPDATE (May 28, 2023 9:16 P.M. ET): The Cruze had to be towed, per this tweet from Indiana-based news reporter Rich Nye:

 

Topshot Credit: NBC/Jamie Jordan (Twitter)

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57 thoughts on “Scary Indy 500 Crash Sends Tire Past Fans And Into Parked Car (UPDATED)”

    1. When they waved off the restart at lap 9, I figured we’d have another crash. I didn’t figure on two, but then I never in a million years think they’d throw that third red flag. It was insane, and we’re really lucky everybody walked away from that shit-show.

    2. Doubt it matters. The track has insurance for these types of things, and if that insurance for whatever reason doesn’t cover it, Penske will more than likely replace the car for her himself. I’m betting the good press that will come from it won’t hurt either.

  3. I hope this story comes back with an awesome surprise from Chevy or the speedway. The Indy 500 president, Doug Boyles, is such a good guy. I spent a week on this cool automotive scavenger hunt thing and he was on it with his 16 year old son. And knowing him, he’s probably trying to do something awesome because her car was damaged. And because he can – hopefully!

  7. I was watching live saw the tire fly off and yelled so loud my wife ran into the living room thinking I had hurt myself. Truly frightening. The in car video was amazing. He was eerily calm going upside down at 200mph

  8. The in-car video of Kirkwood’s crash is something else too. You see things go wrong side up, it cuts out, and then comes back as he’s sliding along the ground with a trail of sparks. It really captures the violence of crashes at these speeds, as well as how amazingly well the safety equipment works.

    Also, the Cruze owner’s checkered flag dress is just terrific, as good as Princess Charlene’s Monaco GP outfit this year. I have a feeling as upsetting as this is for her, she’s also pretty excited that she can now say “Yeah, I’ve been to Indy, I even have a story you probably haven’t heard.”

  10. I wonder where that tire ended up. It would have bounced when it hit the Cruze, and I didn’t see it in the overhead shot. Somewhere over the fence, surely.

    1. I think you’re right. There was a brief overhead shot where it hit something (now we know it was the Cruze) and then went over the fence into that grassy area.

  12. I was at Michigan International Speedway many years ago before the tethers when a wheel went up over the (pretty high) fence and landed in the crowd about 200 feet to my left. We found out later (after getting home) that someone had been killed by that wheel. We knew something was up because a lot of medial people were going to that area, but nothing was announced (maybe they knew on TV but we didn’t in the stands). So when I saw that tire go flying towards the grandstands today my heart sank. Thank goodness only a car was damaged and it missed the crowd – as tightly packed as they were I was quite worried.

  16. Was a scary moment. And Indycar has worked very hard to keep parts from flying into the stands.

    but why did the last 20 laps look like a NASCAR race? Indy is usually much better than that.

    i am not nearly the Indy fan I used to be so religious about. But this years race was pretty good

    1. The competition is so fierce – any of 15 or more cars could have won. When the playing field is so even and the level of talent is so high this is what happens – desperation. There was no need for Pato to make that low-percentage move inside but he was so good all day he figured “I have to go for it”. And it’s the 500…so much prestige when you can put that on a CV.

    2. They were desperate to end it under green this year so race control made some questionable decisions, at least considering how many other 500s have ended under yellow. Last time it finished under yellow flag was only 2020.

      I don’t really question calling red flags and Newgarden deserved his hard fought win, but Ericsson had a point about the danger of a pit-green-checkers restart. Came way too close to that NASCAR green-white-checkers overtime bullshit that really just serves to up the crash count.

      1. I agree with you about race control, but the problem with Ericsson’s assertion is that in years past when the caution flag flew at lap seven (Pato’s crash), THAT would have been the end of the race. It was Newgarden leading at that time. I understand why Ericsson is upset, but the truth is there are some race control decisions that would have led him to win, and several alternative decisions that could have been made where he still doesn’t win. It’s not the A/B that he believes it to be.

        That said, I am not impressed with race control, but that does not take away from Newgarden’s achievement in my book.

  18. It took NBC way too long to report the only casualty was the Cruze. RIP.

    I know some of y’all hang out on the old site a bit (including Mercedes). Have you noticed that Deadspin seems to be an AI aggregator? I know they fired all the writers a few years back, but they have way more weekend content than anything on the GO media.

    ….

  19. I have a hard enough time paying attention at a baseball game to avoid getting beaned by an errant foul ball. I couldn’t imagine having to dodge a whole freaking tire coming at me at 200mph!

  20. Chevy Cruze owner should get to keep the wheel. Then when company comes over, they can tell “So I had great parking at the Indy 500” story with proof.

    2. You shut your mouth! The Cruze owner even named their car. It definitely has value to them.

      That’s an expensive repair bill on the Cruze. The hood needs to be replaced entirely. Same with the headlight since the top mount is right there at the impact site. No PDR possible due to how it’s built. At least it’s white so blending the paint should be doable. If time consuming since the entire front clip needs to be blended.

    3. As a frequent rental car driver, I can tell you I’ll always take a Cruze over any Hyundai, Kia, Nissan or Corolla. My exact words at the counter are “no Hyundais or Nissans, please”

  23. Hope they are able to figure out what went wrong and fix it. Accidents happen, but accidents that endanger the audience require something to change.

    1. You can be sure IndyCar will analyze the failure to find a cause. If the tethers need to be made stronger they will; they adopted the aeroscreen despite all the hate. But it was an incredible impact – Kirkwood did not expect Rosenqvist to drift up and had hardly slowed.

        1. The tether is never going to be 100% due to the other end of it has to attach somewhere, and if that somewhere also is torn off, well no more tether.

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