Indianapolis has the narrowest pit lane on the Nascar calendar. With a competition caution scheduled for early in the race (the result of drivers having no practice and teams needing to check the state of the cars and tyres), there was a worry that it might lead to some incidents – but few would have predicted what happened.
As the field entered the pits on lap 15, the ripple effect of cars slowing down to enter their pit stalls caused a chain reaction which led to a collision towards the back of the pack.
As the unsighted drivers piled into each other, The No. 15 car of Brennan Poole was pushed into the side of Ryan Blaney’s No. 12 car, with tyre changer Zach Price getting caught between the two.
Price was able to scramble out of the way even gave a smile as he was stretchered off in an ambulance. Fortunately, he was later treated and cleared from the hospital, apparently without injury.
Video of the pit road incident involving a pit crew member from @Blaney team. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/TxhZptE54T
— Below The Double Yellow Podcast 🏁 (@BTDYpodcast) July 5, 2020
Ironically, many teams also had problems with tyre failures on the abrasive surface, giving flashbacks to the 2005 US GP. Many drivers had their races affected by excessive wear and worrying vibrations. Erik Jones had a fiery exit from the race when his tyre failed…
…as did William Byron and Alex Bowman.
The unluckiest failure went to Denny Hamlin. He was leading with eight laps to go and looking set to take his first win at the Brickyard when he too suffered a tyre blowout.
Tyre failures and Indianapolis: name a more iconic duo. On this occasion, however, Tiago Monteiro didn’t score a surprise podium for Jordan.
