Results Of Texas Incident Review

In response to the much talked about safety incident at Texas Motor Speedway two weeks ago, the Indy Racing League conducted a review finding a "procedural error in the packing of a fire hose" as well as a "breakdown in Safety Team protocol".

"First and foremost, the Safety Team puts the highest priority on driver safety. Prior to every race, the Safety Team tests all hoses to ensure they're working. At Texas, there was an error in the re-packing of the hose after the test, which caused it to malfunction. We are modifying hoses on all the trucks beginning this weekend in Iowa to prevent this from happening again.

"Additionally, upon arriving at the scene of the incident, our protocol calls for Safety Team members to take pressurized canisters with water and Cold Fire to the car to extinguish the fire as a first response. In situations like this, decisions are made in a split second based on the severity of the incident. After critiquing the situation, we have determined that the canisters are a more efficient and effective way to quickly suppress on-track fires. This will be reviewed with all Safety Team members." - Indy Racing League Track Safety Manager, Mike Yates

"Our Safety Team is at the forefront of motorsports safety and over the years has set a very high standard in its response to all on-track incidents. We are always continually looking for ways to improve the way we operate. What happened at Texas was a result of human error and we will work diligently to prevent this in the future. The safety of our teams, drivers and officials on the racetrack remains our number one priority." - President of Competition and Racing Operations for the Indy Racing League, Brian Barnhart

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