LONG POND, Pa. — Alexander Rossi was as worried as the rest of the IndyCar field when a violent wreck shot Robert Wickens‘ car airborne, ripped up the catchfence and left the tub of the rookie’s Honda toppled on the asphalt.
The crash at Pocono Raceway was the latest grim reminder how drivers in open-wheel racing put their lives on the line.
« It’s part of our job, right? You’ve got to compartmentalize, » Rossi said. « You’ve got to accept it and deal with that emotion after the race. »
Wickens was airlifted to a hospital with what IndyCar called « orthopedic injuries » and the race was stopped for nearly two hours to repair 80-feet of fence and leave at least one driver grumbling about safety.
Once the race restarted, Rossi got rolling.
Rossi dominated Sunday at Pocono and led 180 of 200 laps to win his second straight race and third of the season, slicing into Scott Dixon‘s grip on the championship lead with three races left in the season.
Dixon finished third and his points lead over Rossi dipped to just 29 points, as neither driver can afford much of a slip up in the title hunt.
« We’ve been a bit blah. They’ve been excelling, » Dixon said
Rossi, the 2016 Indianapolis 500 champion, ended Will Power‘s bid to win three straight Pocono races. Power made a hard charge down the stretch and finished second to remain in the thick of the title hunt.
Rossi also won for Andretti Autosport on the streets of Long Beach in April and the Mid-Ohio road course three weeks ago.
But the championship race was tinged with worry over the 29-year-old Wickens, a driver on the rise in his first season with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
Wickens was attempting to pass Ryan Hunter-Reay when the two cars slightly touched just seven laps into the race. That caused Hunter-Reay’s car to careen into the wall and Wickens’ car was pulled along for the ride. Once Wickens’ car soared over Hunter-Reay’s and hit the fence, it spun round and round like a top. The fencing was shredded and Wickens’ car reduced to just the tub, which came to a rest on the track along an interior wall.
After a nearly two-hour delay to repair the fencing, the race resumed without another spate of aggressive driving — Graham Rahal tangled with Spencer Pigot as the field was brought to green at the race’s start — and ended without another caution.
Wickens’ wreck was a chilling moment again at Pocono. Justin Wilson died from a head injury in 2015 when a piece of debris from a crashed car bounced off the track and hit his helmet.
Other items of note at Pocono:
SMOKE OUT
Team owner Roger Penske said it would be tough to field a fifth car for driver Tony Stewart in next year’s Indianapolis 500.
Stewart, a three-time NASCAR champion and Indiana native, said last week he’d like another crack at the Indy 500 as long as he could drive a competitive car.
Penske, who has 17 Indianapolis 500 victories, has long wanted to run a car at the Brickyard with Stewart.
« Who knows what will take place over the next few years. It would be super to have him in one of our cars, » Penske said. « But he knows running a race team, it’s not easy just to put out a car. If we put a car out for Stewart, it’s got to be the best in the field. »
UP NEXT
IndyCar heads to Gateway Motorsports Park, just east of St. Louis, where Josef Newgarden is the defending race winner. The series return to the track last year after a 14-year break to a packed house and rave reviews for the racing from the drivers.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
http://www.espn.com/racing/indycar/story/_/id/24419291/alexander-rossi-wins-indycar-race-pocono-crash-sends-robert-wickens-hospital
