Everything seemed to be coming up roses for Karam, who was making his first appearance at Pocono in the Verizon IndyCar Series. “He was airlifted. That’s all obviously very bad details”. “I don’t know the status right now but I wish him a super speedy recovery”.
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Wilson appeared to suffer a huge blow to his helmet after race leader Sage Karam crashed in the closing stages of the 500-mile race. Wilson was hit in the head by the debris, apparently knocked unconscious, and his auto then hit the inside wall. Wilson was airlifted to the hospital but his status is still unknown.
MotorSportsTalk will have further updates upon official updates from INDYCAR, and/or Wilson’s family or the Andretti Autosport team.
Montoya had a unusual day of brilliance and aggression on every restart, even after his prime title protagonist disappeared, yet he never led a lap. Like most IndyCar drivers, he watched Joey Logano’s win Saturday night at Bristol. He started seventh Sunday, led two laps in the No. 25 Honda and wound up 15th. As I said to him ‘You know I’m in the championship hunt for Honda. “He’s my friend first and foremost, and he’s a teammate”.
The accident was a grim reminder how drivers in open-wheel racing put their lives on the line.
“He was talking trash on me and calling me out in front of the team”, Jody Karam said. “Most of it was really good and clean. But it got real racy at a lot of points”.
But pleasure turned into concern when Hunter-Reay learned of the severity of Wilson’s injury. It was, he said, “just one of those days, kind of insane”. “You have to take advantage”. Justin, a lot of us have been doing this a long time and when we started we didn’t have families. “So, it’s a bummer for points and the record we were going after”. Traffic slowed in front of them and as Wilson lost momentum Rahal went to the inside for the pass. That’s how the cars were aligned as Turn 3 approached.
On lap 197, smoke began to trail from Chaves’ vehicle, bringing out the 12th and final caution of the race. Dixon was ninth at the end of a race in which he never looked a likely victor, yet was often in the thick of the action.
“We’re down, we’re not out”, Rahal said. “It would have been nice to finish under green”.
Australian Will Power, who finished fourth, is 61 points back.
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Ryan Hunter-Reay thought everything was fine. “I’m honored to be on that list now”. “Unfortunately, he just punted us”. “I’m just hoping to get some news, and hopefully soon”.
