Ironically, it was Ferrucci’s teammate Sting Ray Robb a week ago who vaulted off the back of another McLaren driver Alexander Rossi at Iowa Speedway.
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The latest crash was triggered by O’Ward who spun on his own at turn one on lap 73 from sixth and backed his car into the wall.
Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson was left with nowhere to go and locked up the #28 before hitting the side of the #5 McLaren.
What followed was pure carnage as Pietro Fittipaldi (#30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing), Ferrucci (#14 AJ Foyt Racing), and Nolan Siegel (#6 McLaren) piled into O’Ward.
Four cars passed O’Ward by before Fittipaldi made the first of back-to-back-to-back hits.
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Another look at the Turn 1 incident.
All drivers involved have been seen and released.
📺: #IndyTO on Peacock pic.twitter.com/RmxKTYUC0z
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) July 21, 2024
Dale Coyne Racing’s Toby Sowery was last on the scene in the #31, making light contact with Siegel.
Incredibly, O’Ward’s car bump started itself when contact spun him around refired the engine.
Speaking after the incident, O’Ward said the response from IndyCar officials was too slow.
Replays showed the full course yellow on O’Ward’s dash as Siegel hit him.
“I had rear locking, spun, and that’s pretty much the end of that,” said O’Ward.
“I am so surprised IndyCar didn’t call a yellow. Like you’re just calling for a massive shunt.
“They had a solid five seconds to call yellow and tell everybody that was coming.
“I’m glad everybody else that was in it is fine. Sorry for the team. Obviously, we were having a better race than what we’ve had all weekend. It’s really been miserable.”
Thankful for the Aero screen or else I wouldn’t be writing this right now. Sorry to my team and all involved by no fault of their own. As for the incident… maybe next time at least throw a local yellow when a car is in the most dangerous spot possible @IndyCar ? Just a thought pic.twitter.com/KGQIEkvsQP
— Pato O’Ward (@PatricioOWard) July 21, 2024
Onboard footage posted to his Ferrucci’s social media showed O’Ward was almost completely unsighted until it was too late.
“First off, I’m very, very thankful to the IndyCar medical team,” said Ferrucci.
“You know, cars are so safe to have a scary accident like that, just to walk away fine.
“I never saw Pato. Actually, at the start of the race, I had the steering wheel bent trying to avoid Pato and just we were left-hand up, right-hand down [for the rest of the race].
“So when I came through there, I never saw Pietro clip him and nothing on the spotters.
“There was no yellows, no nothing. So I didn’t know to check up and just super unfortunate, I was trying to take care of equipment, trying to have a recovery day and just a bummer.”
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