NEWTON, Iowa — Ed Carpenter Racing’s eponymous team owner, Ed Carpenter, was extremely upset after two crashes in as many days prematurely ended both of his races at Iowa Speedway during the NTT IndyCar Series’ doubleheader weekend at the .875-mile short oval.
“Just caught up in other people’s crap two days in a row,” Carpenter told Frontstretch.
In Saturday night’s Hy-Vee Homefront 250, a spinning Pietro Fittipaldi collected Carpenter against the turn 4 retaining wall on a lap 221 restart. Carpenter’s car received the most damage of the those involved, ending his night.
During Sunday’s Hy-Vee One Step 250, the Indianapolis native spun exiting turn 2 as he was avoiding a flipping Sting Ray Robb on the last lap of the race.
Robb ran into the back of Alexander Rossi as the pair exited turn 2 shortly after the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet ran out of fuel.
“I spun trying to get down to avoid that crash, slid into Rossi, which it wasn’t going to be that bad,” Carpenter said. “And then [Kyle] Kirkwood got into the back of me and like launched me over Rossi. So, just unfortunate. Shame we crashed two cars within the last 23 laps of both races. Yeah, makes me sick for all the work we have to do to go to Toronto.”
Carpenter’s car launched into the air, landing on top of Kirkwood’s as the trio of cars slid next to the inside retaining wall while Robb slid upside down through the final part of the back straight, coming to a stop in turn 3.
Carpenter was angry after his second crash in two days. His mechanics spent many hours in the garage area building up the No. 20 Chevrolet, some arriving back at the track with very limited sleep. The driver hated his mechanics having to fix a crashed car while the team owner hated having more damage bills on top of different car configuration bills.
“The team owner is probably more mad than anybody,” Carpenter said. Like driver, you know, I did about everything I could do in that race other than figure out a way to get through that crash. But it’s just a shame what we’re doing with the product and the amount of money we’re spending to make the racing worse.”
IndyCar mandated a new hybrid system that was introduced at the previous race weekend at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and the hybrid system has added a large amount of weight to the rear of the cars.
That, combined with a tire compound that had limited falloff and a partial repave of Iowa Speedway led to a doubleheader race weekend with far less passing than any previous running of the event.
“Just a shame, but you know, shame for the fans,” Carpenter said. “This is a great event and we’ve made a lot of decisions as a series with what we’re doing with our spec that’s really hurting the racing. So, you know, hopefully they think long and hard about it just so we can say we’re a hybrid series.”
Carpenter’s next race behind the wheel will be the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway near St. Louis on August 17. Christian Rasmussen will resume driving duties in the No. 20 Chevrolet at the upcoming Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto on July 21.
About the author
Christopher DeHarde has covered IndyCar racing and the Road to Indy for various outlets since 2014. In addition to open wheel racing, DeHarde has also covered IMSA and various short track racing events around Indiana. Originally from New Orleans, DeHarde moved to the Indianapolis area in 2017 to further pursue a career as a motorsports writer.
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