Flying tire avoids Indy 500 crowd, hits fan's car: 'I thought somebody was pranking me.'

INDIANAPOLIS — Fans held their collective breath, one reported a minor injury, and another had her car in a track parking lot damaged after a crash in the Indianapolis 500 sent a tire spinning over the grandstands.

“I didn’t see it come down,” said Robin Matthews, a racing fan from Indianapolis and the owner of the parked car struck by the tire spinning off Kyle Kirkwood’s car. “I came down and they said, ‘Robin, it’s your car!’ I thought, ‘No.’ I thought somebody was pranking me.

“It’s a car. It’s fine.”

An IMS spokesperson told IndyStar one spectator reported to the infield medical center with minor injuries related to debris flying into the stands Sunday.

The spokesman said there were no injuries reported from the tire itself. The spectator injured by debris was seen and released from the infield care center.

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Felix Rosenqvist, who was running in the top 5 late in the race, lost the air off his front nose after being passed by Josef Newgarden in Turn 1 and slid up into the wall. Once the car made contact with the outside wall, it slid back down the track and was clipped by Kyle Kirkwood.

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Kirkwood, a winner earlier this season at Long Beach, tried to avoid Rosenqvist’s spinning car, but Kirkwood’s No. 27 contacted Rosenqvist’s No. 6 and spun into the Turn 2 wall. As the Andretti Autosport driver crashed into the Turn 2 wall, the car went airborne, flipping over and sliding down the backstretch.

A tire from Kirkwood’s car detached and was sent over the catch-fencing. Fans in the Turn 2 grandstand reported the tire sailed several feet above them, landing in a parking area between the grandstand and the Turn 2 suites. The tire struck Matthews’ car first, before rebounding into a golf cart.

No injuries were reported from the tire landing, only debris flying into the crowd. Fans in the area told IndyStar they did not see emergency medical personnel enter the stands at any point.

“I was in this turn,” Indianapolis author John Green tweeted. “Hugely relieved everyone appears to be OK. Watching a wheel fly over my friends at 150 miles per hour is not an experience I’m anxious to repeat.”

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The crash on the track ended Sunday for Rosenqvist and Kirkwood, contenders deep into the race before the incident.

It was the first in a series of messy crashes that disrupted the end of what had been a relatively clean race .Sunday’s 500 didn’t see a yellow flag until Lap 91. Across the first 150 laps, there were just two yellows, but the crash involving Rosenqvist and Kirkwood was the first of three to prompt a red-flag stoppage in the last 15 laps of the race.

The sight of Kirkwood's wheel sailing toward the crowd invoked scary memories for longtime fans of the 500. The race's last spectator death came in 1987, when a wheel off Tony Bettenhausen’s No. 56 car struck and killed Lyle Kurtenbach of Rothschild, Wisconsin, sitting in the Turn 3 grandstand.

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Fear of loose debris from crashes entering the crowd has long been a concern in auto racing. IndyCar introduced wheel tethers, meant to secure wheels to cars even in the event of a crash, in 1999. Those tethers were strengthened in December, particularly in cars' rear assemblies, with regulations also cutting down their allowed lifespan from three to two years.

In Sunday's wreck, Kirkwood's car appeared to clip Rosenqvist just at the wheel well, tearing free his left rear tire and launching it into the crowd.

"It's very concerning," said IMS and IndyCar Series owner Roger Penske, who on Sunday watched one of his drivers, Josef Newgarden, claim victory. "We have tethers on the wheels. I know it was a rear wheel that came off, and I'm sure that the guys at IndyCar will look at it, will determine what really happened. We haven't seen a wheel come off in a long time.

"We have high fences here, but we were very fortunate we didn't have a bad accident."

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Newgarden won’t be the only one leaving the 107th running of this fabled event with an indelible memory. Matthews, who said she’s attended several Indy 500s in her life, walks away with a remarkable, if admittedly somewhat unwanted, story.

Her car sustained damage to its front left side, near the headlight. But Matthews said she was just grateful no one was seriously injured.

“It’s fine,” she said. “It’s just a vehicle. Something we can replace.”

Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.

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