Terrifying moment loose wheel almost hits race cars

For the second time this season, the IndyCar Series has avoided disaster when a wheel came loose.

A potential catastrophe was somehow avoided at 250km/h when Sting Ray Robb’s left rear wheel came adrift and wandered up the track into the path of the field.

Robb had just completed a pit stop on lap 156 when he drove out of the pit lane without the wheel nut secured.

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Replays showed the No.51 leave his pit bay and the wheel nut being left behind.

Despite that, the Dale Coyne Racing driver continued down pit lane and onto the track, albeit slowly, before rounding the final turn when the wheel came loose.

Commentators were left aghast as the errant wheel wobbled up the race track and onto the racing line, forcing drivers to take evasive action.

Conor Daly came within millimetres of clipping the wheel, which eventually came to a rest on the apron before being gathered up by the recovery crew.

For the misdemeanour, Robb was disqualified by IndyCar Series officials.

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Earlier this year, a wheel came loose in the Indianapolis 500 when Felix Rosenqvist was spun before being hit by Kyle Kirkwood.

That sent a wheel into the air and over the catch fence before landing in a car park.

The latest incident drew the ire of former IndyCar driver turned commentator James Hinchcliffe, who criticised the team for not stopping Robb in pit lane.

“At that point, you’ve got to radio the driver,” said Hinchcliffe on Stan Sport’s coverage.

“You see the wheel nut is not even on the car. Sometimes a mechanic will say, ‘Hey look, I think I got it on tight enough’, it wasn’t on at all.

“The communication to the driver, I don’t know why they didn’t tell him to stop.”

That incident punctuated an otherwise uneventful race for Josef Newgarden, who went back-to-back at Iowa Speedway to continue his purple patch on ovals.

Despite starting from seventh, he rose to the podium by lap 26 and was contending for the lead shortly thereafter.

The key moment of the race came on lap 31 when Will Power fought to keep Team Penske stablemate Scott McLaughlin behind him, only for Newgarden to pass them both in one turn.

Newgarden was largely unchallenged from there, surviving a handful of caution interventions to snag his fourth oval win of the season after triumphs at Texas Motor Speedway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and the first leg of the Iowa Speedway double-header.

Power endured something of a rollercoaster day, occupying just about every position inside the top 10 throughout the 250-lap affair.

He wound up second after a key set-up change mid-race gave him the comfort he needed to fight through to finish just one place lower than where he started.

Alex Palou completed the podium in Scott Dixon-esque day for the Chip Ganassi Racing driver. The Spaniard found himself a lap down at one point during the race, but a caution period allowed him to get that lap back and fight through. 

For Scott McLaughlin, it was an up-and-down day. He fought hard to usurp Newgarden towards the tail of the race by going onto an alternative strategy, though that didn’t pay dividends. 

In the end, he torched his tyres and battled his way to fifth just behind McLaren’s Felix Rosenqvist.

Rosenqvist was a contender for the win late in the race after he surged from 16th to second but found himself bogged down by traffic. 

A three-lap dash to the chequered flag after Ryan Hunter-Reay brought out the caution ended his hopes when Power put a pass on the Swede into turn one and hung him out to dry. Rosenqvist got into the dirty part of the track before ceding a position to Palou.

The IndyCar Series takes a one-week break before returning on August 7 for the Music City Grand Prix on the streets of Nashville.

Palou still leads the series, although his lead over Newgarden has been cut to 80 points. Dixon sits third and 120 points in arrears ahead of Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Marcus Ericsson (-147).

McLaughlin shares fifth in the standings with Pato O’Ward, the pair both 148 points behind. Power, meanwhile, is seventh and 162 points back.

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