Rossi left speechless after wall kiss ends catastrophically in Toronto

It wasn’t the fact that Alexander Rossi hit the wall with the right-rear wheel on the exit of Toronto’s Turn 11 – because the Ed Carpenter Racing driver was one of many to have his car surf over the giant bumps leading onto the Honda Indy Toronto’s front straight – it was the specific spot where the right-rear met the wall.

He didn’t glance off of the concrete barrier like everyone else.

On Rossi's No. 20 ECR Chevy, the suspension was pulled away from the car as the wheel appeared to catch the intersection between two of the 7000-pound concrete blocks where, for whatever reason, the blocks weren’t flush.

Prior to his impact, nearly identical strikes to the same section of wall did no damage to some cars and bent suspensions and broke bodywork on others, which made the race-ending toll a hard one for the Californian to reconcile.

“I just tracked out a little bit too wide and ended up destroying the rear of the car,” he said. “I'm still trying to process it, because I've never seen that amount of damage to really any sort of hit like that. The suspension is cut and the gearbox is pulled apart. It’s very disappointing.

“We were on the right strategy and the No. 20 Java House ECR guys were doing a good job with what we had. A good result was on the table and I am pretty speechless about the penalty for my transgression.”

With the crash and 25th-place finish, Rossi dropped from 16th in the championship, with four races to go, to 18th. It was a costly trip to Canada for ECR as Rossi’s teammate Christian Rasmussen was running well until he was hit by Team Penske’s Will Power, spun, crashed, and lost eight laps while repairs were made to the No. 21 Chevy.

The Dane improved to 20th place at the checkered flag, but was able to hold onto 15th place in the standings.