Sting Ray Robb Goes Airborne in Last Lap Crash in Iowa

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

NEWTON, Iowa – Sunday’s Hy-Vee One Step 250 was one lap shy of ending as a clean and clear affair, but on the final lap, chaos struck.

Coming off Turn 2 on the final lap, Alexander Rossi was off the pace, apparently running out of fuel when Sting Ray Robb ran up on him at a high rate of speed, making contact and launching his No. 41 Chevrolet skyward. The car did a pirouette while in the air, coming down hard on the driver’s side, sending the car flipping down the backstretch, where he would come to rest upside down.

Behind Rossi and Robb, Kyle Kirkwood jumped out of the gas and spun while trying to avoid it, but wound up getting collected in a wad of cars that also involved Ed Carpenter.

Carpenter’s car would wind up getting launched over Rossi and he would land on Kirkwood’s car with his rear wheel hanging perilously on the side of the aeroscreen on Kirkwood’s car.

After a quick response from the AMR Safety Team, Carpenter’s car was able to be removed from over the top of Kirkwood, with the two and Rossi all able to climb out under their own power.

Shortly thereafter, Robb’s car was righted and he was able to be pulled from the cockpit. Safety officials placed him on a backboard and loaded him into a waiting ambulance, where he flashed a thumbs up to let everyone know he was OK.

After a short stay in the INDYCAR Medical Unit, Robb was transported by air to a local hospital for further evaluation. Safety officials noted he was awake and alert, with the decision to transport him by air being a result of the vast distance between the track and the hospital.

“Sting Ray is well. He’s awake, he’s alert, he’s in good condition,” said Dr. Julia Vaizer, head of the IndyCar Medical Unit. “We’re going to send him to the hospital to get some advanced imaging. He’s going to go by air just because of the location, but he’s in good spirits.”

All three of the other drivers involved were evaluated and released from the INDYCAR Medical Unit.

For his part in the incident, Rossi passed on his well wishes to Sting Ray, noting that they were just trying to make it to the end on fuel when it unexpectedly hiccupped out of Turn 2, leading to the collision between himself and Robb.

“I’m not sure what exactly happened with the fuel load, but we had to go into a pretty crazy save mode there at the end,” Rossi said. “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. It was very unfortunate, and I feel like we let two really good results get away from us. The cars were good, and I am just hoping Sting Ray is okay at this point.”

Kirkwood explained he knew of the problem Rossi was having and he spun just trying to avoid the melee in front of him.

“Rossi was running out of fuel and staying on line. He was going much, much slower. My spotter apprised me of the situation, but clearly it was a bit too late for Sting Ray there. Hopefully he’s OK, hopefully everyone that has gotten out is OK. Definitely a very, very scary wreck. Flipped multiple times up in the air,” Kirkwood said.

“As soon as I saw that, they were actually slowing down so much because Rossi was already going slow and Sting Ray was in the air and he’s pretty much like a parachute sitting perpendicular to the road in one of these cars.

“I lifted out of the throttle out of the corner and instantly spun myself. That’s unfortunate. Sorry to the guys. We were having a good race there. We were actually still on the last lap, so we actually didn’t finish that bad. I was surprised looking at this to see we finished 16^th.

“Sorry to the guys. Hopefully everyone’s OK. Scary wreck. Glad everyone is semi-OK.”

It was a flashback of sorts for Kirkwood, who found himself in a similar incident at Indianapolis in 2023 when he was trapped upside down for a short time after his shunt late in the Indy 500. Then as in now, the safety crew was able to reassure him everything was OK while they worked to get him out.

“I hate being stuck inside the car. There is no doubt about that,” Kirkwood said. “When I was stuck at Indianapolis upside down, the first thing you want is to get out of the car. Obviously the safety crew came over there, got to me within seconds and calmed me down. They said you’re good, we’ll help you out, we’re here for you. That was very calming for me.

“But the initial thought when you crash and there’s a car on top of you or you’re stuck, the last thing you want to do is be on fire. The initial instinct is just to get out, but obviously, these cars are so safe now to where we don’t have to be too concerned. Obviously, the AMR Safety Crew was there for us in case anything was wrong.”

For Carpenter, it was the second day in a row that he was swept up in a crash that was not of his own doing.

“I knew Alex was off pace ahead. My spotter had told me a couple of laps before,” said Carpenter. “And it looked like Sting Ray misjudged the closing rates somehow, even though it was clear Alex was slow. Then I spun just trying to get down.

“Didn’t think it was going to be that bad. I just kind of slid into Alex and I think Kirkwood came from behind and hit me, launched me right over the top of Alex. That was the hardest part of the crash. But yeah, it’s a shame, two days in a row, two accidents that I was really a victim of.”