Robb was airlifted to hospital after the final lap, drivers said

Sting Ray Robb has been taken to a local hospital, but is ‘awake, alert and in good spirits’ after being involved in a massive four-car crash on the last lap of IndyCar’s double-header at Iowa Speedway on Sunday .

The Idaho native closed rapidly on the No. 7 Arrows McLaren Chevrolet of Alexander Rossi, who was exiting Turn 2 and running out of fuel.

Robb attempted to make a pass on the inside of Rossi, but the right rear of his No. 41 Chevrolet clipped Rossi’s left rear, sending him airborne and completely vertical, before the car came to rest two and a half laps later. Bar rolled and then skated down the backstretch on the right side of his machine and stopped in that position in Turn 3.

Trying to avoid the crash, Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood and Ed Carpenter both spun out, but collided with each other as they collided with Rossi on the apron. Carpenter’s left rear tire went over Kirkwood’s No. 27 Honda, partially blocking the top of the aeroscreen exhaust as the cars stopped.

The AMR Safety Team carefully straightened Rob’s car, helping him out of the car where he was sitting on the sidepod. After a while, he was placed on a stretcher and given a thumbs up to the crowd before being put into an ambulance.

IndyCar provided an update that Robb is “awake, alert and in good condition” after the last lap crash in today’s race at Iowa Speedway. The No. 41 driver is being taken to a local hospital as a precaution for further evaluation. He was given credit for finishing 21st.

Carpenter, the only owner/driver of the series, which runs only on ovals, shared his front-row view of the incident.

“Alex was off-speed for a few laps,” said Carpenter, who was classified 22nd. “I saw that, my spotter told me, I thought he had a fuel problem or some problem.

“It looked like Sting Ray might have noticed he was going in slow motion. To me, it seemed like it misjudged the completion rate a bit. They approached and then I was trying to get down to avoid that mess.

“It wasn’t actually going to be that bad; I hit Alex and then Kirkwood spun and hit me and that’s when our accident got worse.”

Rossi’s strategist, Brian Barnhart, shared that he had opted to short-fill his driver on lap 201. Rossi was running eighth on the final lap, before the incident dropped him to 15th.

“We definitely had a fuel issue at this point,” Barnhart said. “I tried to reduce the time on pit road.

“Now, whether we didn’t get enough fuel in there or if there was a fuel change, obviously we didn’t have enough to finish and we tried to get past him about the last four laps and coming out of Turn 2 Ran away completely. ,

And Rossi was not aware of the fuel problem until there were a few laps remaining.

Rossi said, “I was not told at any time that we were in a fuel situation until four o’clock, so it was a surprise to me.”

“We ended up having to go into a really crazy save mode. I thought we were going to get there, but unfortunately something happened when I started running out of fuel by Turn 2 and our day was over.

“I’m just hoping that Sting Ray is okay right now.”

The vantage point for Kirkwood was similar to that of Carpenter, who was surprised by what he saw on the small 0.894-mile oval.

“Rossi ran out of fuel,” said Kirkwood, who finished 16th. “I was told about it about a lap before that.

“Very unfortunate. I don’t understand why he was still on-line at that time. Obviously, he’s trying to defend as much as he can.

“I don’t understand why Sting Ray didn’t pass him. Obviously, the completion rate was bigger and late in the race you’re starting to lose a little bit of reaction time. So, maybe that has something to do with it, but it’s a very scary incident.

“I’ve never seen a car fly through the air like that in front of me and the direction it actually went and the car slowed down so much that I had to slow down so much and I took myself out of the rate of speed . Was trying to (reduce speed).

“To be honest, I think the drivers in front probably could have done a better job of reducing the risk of something like this happening.”

Sting Ray Robb, AJ Foyt Enterprises

Photo by: NBC

And Kirkwood had a panic moment of being trapped in his cockpit and unable to get out because of Carpenter’s rear wheel.

“I wanted to get out of the car as quickly as possible,” Kirkwood said. “I think all of us, when you have no control over your ability to get out of the car, you become claustrophobic very quickly.

“When you’re on the pit lane and everything is OK, you know you can go out. But it’s easy to find yourself panicking, especially when it’s so hot and you’ve just run a whole race, and we’re having trouble with our nice suits.

“It’s safe to say I was feeling very hot and wanted out of the car, but everything was fine. Once the AMR safety team came over and calmed me down, I knew they were pushing as hard as they could to get me out of the car and that calmed me down.