Dixon, Howard walk away from huge 500 crash

Scott Dixon has walked away from a massive accident that left his car torn in half on lap 53 of the Indianapolis 500.

The Chip Ganassi Racing driver, who started the race from pole position, was running seventh when the lapped car of Jay Howard drifted onto the marbles at Turn 2, hit the outside wall, and then spun back down the track.

Howard's car narrowly missed Tony Kanaan, but Dixon, running immediately behind, had nowhere to go. His car launched off Howard's left-rear wheel, rotated 180 degrees in the air, and then landed side-on on top of the crash barrier on the inside of Turn 2, making impact just behind the safety cell before landing on its roll bar and eventually coming to rest right-side up.

Both drivers were able to walk to safety vehicles unassisted, while a photographer who had been standing behind the barrier was evacuated awake and conscious on a stretcher.

Dixon and Howard were cleared and released a short time after being checked at the infield medical center.

"I'm a little beaten up," said Dixon. "It was a bit of a rough ride. I'm bummed for the team; we had a good shot. I'm just glad everybody is OK.

"When you make those decisions of which way to go... I was hoping Jay was going to stay up at the wall. I had nowhere to go. You just hold on and have faith in the safety advances that we've had over the years."

Howard said that he drifted off line while trying to let another car past.

"We ended up a couple of laps down; we ran out of fuel in the first stint, and were just trying to pick up some laps, maybe get some yellows and try to pick something up form the race," he said.

"I let Ryan Hunter-Reay go, I was trying to be a nice guy, and when I tried to slot in behind him he tried to push me out into the marbles, and the rest is history. To say that I'm unhappy is an understatement.

"I'm fine, I'm glad Scott's OK, because he was a victim of this. It sucks."

The race was red-flagged to allow for repairs to a hole in the barrier. Fernando Alonso was leading from Alexander Rossi at the time of the accident.