Robb airlifted to hospital after last-lap flip, drivers speak out

Sting Ray Robb has been airlifted to a local hospital but is ‘awake, alert and in good spirits’ after being involved in a massive four-car crash on the last-lap of IndyCar’s double-header at Iowa Speedway on Sunday. 

The Idaho native closed quickly on the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet of Alexander Rossi, who was sputtering and ran out of fuel exiting Turn 2.

Robb attempted make a pass on the inside of Rossi but caught the right-front of his No. 41 Chevrolet into the left-rear of Rossi, which sent him airborne and completely vertical before the car rolled two-and-a-half times and then skated down the backstretch on the right side of his machine, coming to a stop in the same position in Turn 3.

In trying to avoid the accident, both Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood and Ed Carpenter spun out, but slid into each other as they collided into Rossi on the apron. Carpenter’s left-rear tire climbed over Kirkwood’s No. 27 Honda, partially blocking the top of the aeroscreen exit as the cars came to a rest.

The AMR Safety Team carefully flipped Robb’s car upright, assisting him out of the car, where he sat on the sidepod. After a while, he was placed on the stretcher and gave a thumbs up to the crowd before being put into an ambulance.

IndyCar provided an update that Robb is “awake, alert and in good condition following the last-lap crash in today’s race at Iowa Speedway. The No. 41 driver is being transported to a local hospital as a precaution for further evaluation.” He was credited with a finish of 21st.

Carpenter, the only owner/driver in the series that runs only on ovals, shared his front row view of the incident.

“Alex was off-pace for a couple of laps,” said Carpenter, who was classified 22nd. “I saw that, my spotter told me, I figured he had a fuel problem or some problem.

“It just looked like Sting Ray had to have seen that he was going slower. To me, it just looked like he misjudged the closing rate a little bit. They made contact and then I was trying to get low to avoid that mess and spun.

“Really wasn’t going to be that bad; I slid into Alex and then Kirkwood spun and hit me and that’s when our crash got worse.”

Brian Barnhart, strategist for Rossi, shared that they did opt to short-fill his driver on lap 201. Rossi was running eighth on the final lap before the incident left him 15th.

“We definitely had a fuel issue on the thing,” Barnhart said. “I tried to minimize time on pit road.

“Now, whether we didn’t get enough fuel in it or if the fuel there shifted, we obviously didn’t have enough to finish and we tried to back him down about the last four laps and ran completely out coming out of Turn 2.”

And Rossi was unaware of the fuel problem until there were a handful of laps remaining.

“I was not told at any point that we were in a fuel situation until like four to go, so it was a surprise to me,” Rossi said.

“We had to go into a pretty crazy save mode there at the end. I think we were going to get there, but unfortunately there was an incident when I was beginning to lose fuel out of Turn 2 and it ended our day.

“I am just hoping Sting Ray is okay at this point.”

The vantage point for Kirkwood was similar to Carpenter, who was in awe of what he witnessed on the short 0.894-mile oval.

“Rossi was out of fuel,” said Kirkwood, who finished 16th. “I was told about it about a lap earlier than that.

“Super unfortunate. I don’t understand why he was still on-line at that (point). Obviously, he’s trying to protect as much as he possibly can.  

“I don’t understand why Sting Ray didn’t pass him. Obviously, the closing rate was big and late in the race here you’re starting to lose a little bit of reaction timing. So, maybe that has something to do with it, but a very scary incident.

“I’ve never seen a car fly in the air in front of me like that and the direction that he actually went and the car slowed so much that I had to slow so much and I spun myself out from the rate of speed that I was trying to [decelerate].

“To be honest, I think drivers in front could have potentially done a better job to reduce the risk of something like that happening.”

Sting Ray Robb, A.J. Foyt Enterprises

Photo by: NBC

And Kirkwood had a nervous moment of his own being trapped in his cockpit and unable to get out due to the rear wheel of Carpenter halting his exit.

“I just want to get out of the car as quick as possible,” Kirkwood said. “I think all of us, when you have no control of your ability to get out of the car, you get claustrophobic extremely quick.

“When you’re on pit lane and everything’s fine, you know you can get out. But it’s easy to find yourself in a panic, especially when it’s this hot out and you’ve just done an entire race, and we were having issues with our cool suit.

“It’s safe to say I was extremely hot and I wanted to get out of the car, but everything was fine. Once the AMR Safety Team got to me and calmed me down, I knew that they were pushing as hard as they possibly can to get me out of the car and that calmed me.”