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Dixon climbed from his car unassisted, but visibly shaken. After what had happened to Sebastien Bourdais a week ago, the crowd roared with approval as Dixie climbed from his destroyed Dallara.
The tub, with Dixon in it, ended up on the warmup lane of Turn 2. The back half of his car ended up near the outside wall across the track. Bits of Dallara racecar and SAFER barrier littered the track. Dixon’s car had also torn a hole in the inside catch fence. The race was red flagged. A photographer was injured trying to avoid the crash, but ended up being ok.
The fact that Dixon walked away from this wreck is a true miracle. A few inches in another direction, and his head would have landed on the inside wall, the same type of impact that killed Jules Bianchi, Dan Wheldon, and Justin Wilson.
Howard was also fine, though his SPM prepared car was toast. Howard too was quite lucky as no part of Dixon’s car ended up in the cockpit, nor was he hit by any other cars as he spun. Both were checked and released from the infield medical center.
You can see how little of Dixon’s car is left: all of those missing pieces take away some of the kinetic energy of the crash as they break away. Because of how it landed, the transmission spacer was actually split in half during the impact. As they do with every big crash, Dallara will analyze the destroyed cars to see if there are any safety improvements they can make to the tub to help continually improve the safety of these machines.
Well, that wraps up Part 1 of our Indy 500 coverage! Be sure to check out Part 2 for more exciting recap!
