Newgarden slips past Ericsson in final lap to win Indianapolis 500
Josef Newgarden battled three late-race wrecks to overtake Marcus Ericsson to win Sunday's Indianapolis 500.
LEARN MOREPosted: 9:23 a.m. EDT Jun 1, 2023
Robin Matthews was enjoying the Indianapolis 500 like 300,000 others on Sunday when suddenly things changed drastically.
On lap 184, Felix Rosenqvist lost control of his car between turns one and two. As he spun, Kyle Kirkwood made contact with Rosenqvist, which caused his tire to fly off the car and outside of the track.
The tire struck Matthews' car in the parking lot, and the car had to be towed from the track.
Now, Indianapolis Motor Speedway has confirmed the woman will receive a new car, but details have not be finalized on what the car will be.
The tire narrowly missed striking the grandstand and potentially injuring dozens of spectators. The incident brought immediate safety concerns as the rear tire weighs 22 pounds.
"I saw what had happened; saw it bounced on top of a building and went and hit a car over there, which obviously is very concerning. We have tethers on the wheels, and it was a rear wheel that came off, and I'm sure the guys at INDYCAR will look at it, will determine what really happened," said team owner Roger Penske. "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."
This story was originally published by James Howell Jr. for Scripps News Indianapolis.
