Sunday’s Indianapolis 500, particularly the final 20 laps, was filled with drama, tension and some terrifying crashes, including when a tire from Felix Rosenqvist’s car flew off into the crowd and hit a parked car.
Rosenqvist made contact with the outside wall at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and spun out as a result. With traffic coming around the track, Kyle Kirkwood hit Rosenqvist’s skidding car, causing the tire to shoot out toward the grandstands. Kirkwood then slammed into the wall, flipped upside down and slid down the track.
Thankfully, no one was injured from the tire soaring above fans’ heads — though one spectator was treated for minor injuries from flying debris not related to the tire. But it hit a parked car, damaging the front left side.
Here’s where that flying tire impacted in turn 2
@IMS #indy500 pic.twitter.com/MLexGcUu5q— Andrew Kossack (@AndrewKossack) May 28, 2023
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And now, as the IndyStar reported Wednesday, the owner of the damaged (passenger) car, Robin Matthews, is getting a replacement from Penske Entertainment, which owns Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the IndyCar Series, per a track spokesperson.
“I didn’t see it come down,” said Matthews, a racing fan from Indianapolis. “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.”
For racing fans who know anything about Roger Penske and the “Penske Way,” a new car for Matthews is hardly a surprise.
