Rossi wins at Pocono, Wickens in a hospital after a horrific crash

Alexander Rossi (Andretti Autosport) wins the ABC Supply 500 at Pocono Raceway, scoring his fifth IndyCar Series victory in a career and the third this season. However, the race was marked by a horrific multi-car accident which resulted in bad injuries of Robert Wickens.

The accident happened early in the race, on lap 7, when a contact between Wickens and Ryan Hunter-Reay launched Canadian’s car into the fence, where it spun violently before landing on the track. The driver of the #6 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda sustained orthopedic injuries in the crash and was transported to Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where he was being evaluated Sunday night.

Ryan Hunter-Reay, James Hinchcliffe, Takuma Sato and Pietro Fittipaldi, whose cars were also collected in the incident, were likewise uninjured and eliminated from the race.

Horrific scene at Pocono Raceway

The race was delayed nearly two hours by a red-flag stoppage for track fencing repairs. Rossi dominated in the race, leading for 180 of the 200 laps on the 2.5-mile triangular oval in the #27 Honda. He took the checkered flag 4.4982 seconds ahead of Team Penske’s Will Power. Only two more drivers finished the race in the same lap as Rossi, the third-placed Scott Dixon and the fourth-placed Sebastien Bourdais.

In the championship standings, with three more races on the calendar, Rossi is in the second place and he decreased a gap behind Scott Dixon to 29 points. Josef Newgarden was third, 37 points down to Rossi.

The next race is the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline at Gateway Motorsports Park on Saturday, August 25.