Yahoo Finance Colton Herta's car flies through the air in scary IndyCar restart crash at Iowa
Colton Herta’s car launched into the air off the back of Rinus VeeKay’s when IndyCar called off a restart on Friday night at Iowa Speedway.
The race was preparing to go green after Will Power caused a caution when his left-front wheel came off the car after a pit stop. As Pato O’Ward led the field to green, IndyCar’s race control didn’t like what it saw and waved off the restart five seconds before it was supposed to begin. As drivers tried to slow down after accelerating off Turn 4, Herta’s car hit VeeKay’s and went airborne.
Both drivers cleared from the medical center after the @ColtonHerta @rinusveekay incident.#INDYCAR // #IOWA250S pic.twitter.com/ODiBbwY4xi
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) July 18, 2020
Thankfully, Herta climbed from his car and was OK. His car avoided flying into the catchfence and landing on top of the outside wall.
This is what it looked like from Herta’s in-car camera.
#Indycar 🇺🇸 #Iowa250s
⚠️ Vuelta 162/250 ⚠️ Así fue el fuerte accidente entre Colton Herta y Rinus Veekay. Herta, quien venía acelerando para el reinicio, no alcanzó a frenar y salió volando. Por poco no golpeó la malla protectora en plena línea de meta.
Ambos pilotos OK. pic.twitter.com/0YDhm7gjwL— Colombia Motor Fans (desde 🏡) (@ColMotorFans) July 18, 2020
The crash was the first big test of IndyCar’s aeroscreen head protection for drivers. Herta’s car launched over VeeKay’s right by the cockpit of VeeKay’s car and a piece of debris from Herta’s car hit near the cockpit of Marcus Ericsson’s car.
IndyCar installed the protection for drivers ahead of the 2020 season. The screens were long overdue in an effort to make IndyCar drivers safer and prevent catastrophic head injuries.
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
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