Wild ride for McLaughlin red flags IndyCar practice

The IndyCar Series was forced to red flag Saturday morning’s practice session at Barber Motorsports Park when Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin spun on entry to the high-speed Turn 1 and crashed backwards through the tires and fencing.

Landing on the other side, McLaughlin was able to climb from the car and, despite the speed and severity of the crash, was uninjured.

​"I just dropped the right rear, unfortunately,” McLaughlin said. “It’s a testament to the safety of the IndyCar and what Barber has done here. Honestly, I think the crash looked a lot worse than it felt. I hope we can get this thing fixed and go out and ship it again in qualifying. I knew the impact was coming, so I tried to brace myself, and then I ended up halfway through the fence, so it was pretty exciting. I’m sad for my guys. I've got the best crew on pit land, and they'll fix it as fast as they can. It's a shame.​"

The New Zealander’s No. 3 Chevy crew and the rest of the available Penske crew leapt into action after the car returned to the paddock and were looking at assembling a spare car (pictured below) for McLaughlin to use for the rest of the event.