IndyCar rookie Callum Ilott has taken to social media to hail the category's aeroscreen after he struck a large piece of debris at Texas Motor Speedway.
Ilott published a photograph on Twitter of onboard footage from his Juncos Hollinger Racing car, just before he hits a pushrod on the circuit's back straight.
“Big thanks to the @indycar aeroscreen yesterday, saved me from a a big one with a pushrod,” he wrote just before the weekend's 248-lap race.
Big thanks to the @indycar aeroscreen yesterday, saved me from a a big one with a pushrod 🙌 pic.twitter.com/Lc8cQ0IuJW
— Callum Ilott (@callum_ilott) March 20, 2022
Given the Briton did not participate in the special ‘top line practice' session, the incident presumably occurred in Practice 2 later on Saturday afternoon (local time), as Qualifying was a one-at-a-time affair.
Notably, it was during Practice 2 that compatriot Jack Harvey (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing) crunched the wall on drivers' left after losing control exiting Turn 2, which feeds onto the back straight.
Harvey was able to walk away but would not take the start the next day given his accelerometer recorded a g-force higher than the threshold in IndyCar's medical protocols.
The aeroscreen was introduced in 2020 and, coincidentally, used in a race for the first time at Texas.