The NTT Indy Car season started off in Florida this past weekend for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. The race started off catastrophically as the cars didn’t make it past turn 3 before a massive pile up involving over 25% of the field brought the race to a halt. You can see the event unfold in this clip posted by NBC.
NBC Sports Coverage of the IndyCar series Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
The events unfolded when 6 time IndyCar champion made incidental contact with Scott Dixon and Felix Rosenqvist causing a chain reaction that involved 8 cars. The drivers involved were Helio Castroneves, Simon Pagenaud, Santino Ferrucci, Devlin DeFrancesco, Sting Ray Robb and Benjamin Pedersen. Felix commented on the incident, “It felt like he didn’t see I was there,” Rosenqvist said. “I never expected him to swerve out. I just tried to get out on the first couple of turns. I was just hanging there and he didn’t know I was there. It sucks. I thought we had a really good chance today. I’m really bummed about it. That’s just not the way you want to start.”
Amongst the carnage the Benjamin Pedersen flew into ran square into the side of No. 29 DeFrancesco and sent him airborne and spinning down the track. Helio Castroneves exited his car with a very obvious limp suggesting he was seriously injured. However after receiving xrays it was found that he did not break any bones. Kyle Kirkwood also was sent airborne after making contact with Jack Harvey. Harvey had complained about wrist pains but passed a medical examination.
Ericsson was able to avoid the on track drama and secured his 4th win.