Pit road pile-up halts Brickyard 400, crew member injured

The Brickyard 400 was red-flagged on Lap 14 due to a multi-car accident on pit road.

Almost all the lead-lap cars elected to pit on Lap 14 during a scheduled competition caution. Several cars toward the back of the field suddenly got turned sideways in a stack-up, triggering a multi-car wreck. During the incident, a member of Ryan Blaney’s pit crew got struck by a car.

Among the cars involved were Blaney, Ryan Preece, Chris Buescher, Christopher Bell, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Justin Allgaier, Martin Truex Jr., Brennan Poole and Corey LaJoie. NASCAR immediately issued a red flag to clear pit road and attend to the injured crew member.

Blaney’s rear tire changer, Zach Price, was identified by the team as the injured member and was transported by ambulance to the infield care center. He was awake and alert at the time and gave a “thumbs up” signal.

As a result of the incident, Preece, Stenhouse, Allgaier, Truex, Poole and LaJoie all saw their races come to an early end. Allgaier was substituting for Jimmie Johnson, who announced on Friday he had tested positive for COVID-19.

“Even looking at the replay, I’m not sure what happened. It’s disappointing. It was an honor to drive the 48 car today. It’s just disappointing. I don’t know if there was anything we could do differently,” Allgaier said after being released from the infield care center.

The race returned to caution after an 11-minute delay. Logano was the first off pit road during the stops. Kevin Harvick had pit before the caution and stayed out to inherit the race lead. The race returned to green on Lap 20.

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