IndyCar: Frightening crash mars final practice in Fontana

A sizeable crash involving three drivers brought an early end to Verizon IndyCar Series night practice at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Ca.

Marco Andretti, Charlie Kimball and Mikhail Aleshin were involved in the turn 3 incident, with Aleshin’s No. 7 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda receiving the brunt of the damage. TV cameras showed a section of the fence had been ripped away and a wheel from a car – possibly Aleshin’s – left stuck in the fence.

Aleshin spun while approaching Scott Dixon, who was on the apron headed towards pit lane. As the Russian rookie’s car moved up the track, Kimball, who was running at full speed, had nowhere to go and hit the SPM car. The No. 7 climbed the barrier, hit the fence, and rotated numerous times before landing.

The front of both cars were tattered. Andretti slid to a halt as debris covered the track.

"I saw [Aleshin] spinning and figured I'd either make it through the cloud of tire smoke, or we were going to have a pretty hard hit," Kimball told RACER. "I'm fine and I hope Mikhail's all right."