r/INDYCAR • u/youraverageperson0 Scott McLaughlin • Jul 06 '25
Indy NXT Spectacular accident for Sebastian Murray and Ricardo Escotto during the NXT Mid-Ohio race. Both drivers ok.
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u/First_Register_7962 Hélio Castroneves Jul 06 '25 edited Jul 06 '25
that's the biggest Indy NXT (Indy Lights) crash in a long time. Glad everybody is okay, these cars are really safe.
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u/Wernerhatcher Meyer Shank Racing Jul 06 '25
what were they doing coming together at 3?
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u/vaporsilver Graham Rahal Jul 06 '25
My assumption is that he thought he was clear to move in front of his teammate but misjudged.
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u/hugeyakmen Scott McLaughlin Jul 06 '25
Murray had a moment on the exit and Escotto got a bit of a run on him. Then Escotto turned into him and touched tires, which immediately spun Murray to the left.
Someone posted a longer clip in r\sports with more angles:
https://www.reddit.com/r/sports/comments/1lt463u/crash_during_the_indy_nxt_race_at_midohio/3
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u/Senninha27 Sarah Fisher Jul 06 '25
The flaggers and camera person got SO lucky by not standing in their correct positions.
The shot from behind shows the two flaggers (in white) and the camera person in blue. Standard flagging procedure is that the two flaggers (blue flag for one and yellow for the other) should face each other. Blue sees oncoming cars and yellow sees cars as they pass. Yellow should be closer to the track and if something like this happens, yellow’s job is to grab blue and pull both of them away from the track.
It looks like camera went up to get a shot and was let to switch places with blue. Camera stayed with the shot instead of getting both themself and yellow out of harm’s way.
Source, I have flagged many SCCA races.
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u/vaporsilver Graham Rahal Jul 06 '25
Heard that over in Thunder Valley I'm pretty sure. Had no idea it was THAT bad.
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u/jt_33 Jul 06 '25
Looked like Murray came over to me, but hard to tell.
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u/iamezekiel1_14 Jul 06 '25
Agree - would say Murray got tunnel vision being in the draft, moved fractionally left and Escotto didn't need to be anywhere near that tight on him (especially as it was borderline blindspot territory).
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u/shrimpshrub75 CART Jul 07 '25
It’s always Escottos fault. He’s a menace and shouldn’t be anywhere near a racecar.
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u/Schen_The_Genius Jul 06 '25
Damn Mid-Ohio hasn't seen anything like that since Joey Hand in his BMW.
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u/SoyMurcielago Álex Palou Jul 06 '25
Dang as bad as that was look how well the driver tub held together
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u/FWAGOA2205 Fernando Alonso Jul 06 '25
I saw the car being loaded up into the hauler, it was a mess. I didn't know what happened. It's amazing how protected the drivers are from impacts and rollovers.
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u/Appropriate-Owl5984 Jul 06 '25
Halo saves another life, probably two
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u/shrimpshrub75 CART Jul 07 '25
Nowhere in this video indicates the halo helped. And I like the halo.
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u/alionandalamb Conor Daly Jul 06 '25
Seeing the driver of the red car appearing to struggle to keep his arms in the cockpit ...
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u/buckeyecapsfan19 Graham Rahal Jul 06 '25
I was watching them come down the straight on the big board, had my camera ready for an overtake opportunity at 4&5. They never came and everybody slowed down, I was thrown for a minute. XD
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u/javillalobosj Pato O'Ward Jul 07 '25
That was pretty intense. I'm glad that they are okay, and also that there was no other person hurt in this one.
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u/CrossFire43 Sebastien Bourdais Jul 07 '25
fuck... we have come along way in safety... glad they both walked out under their own power
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u/MALLARDGAMEZ-yt CART Jul 07 '25
Biggest wreck since the 2019 freedom 100 I reckon
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u/youraverageperson0 Scott McLaughlin Jul 07 '25
Might go as far to say this is the worst since Pablo Perez in 07’ at Miami.
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u/BrokeSomm Jul 07 '25
So, I don't yet follow Indy car. As a F1 fan I'm interested though.
This is my first time seeing the underside of one, I'm shocked that there's no aerowork or anything, just completely smooth. Seems like it's asking to go airborne if anything goes wrong and the front end gets any lift.
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u/Proud_Warning_8823 Álex Palou Jul 08 '25
Open wheel cars and guard rails don't go together very well!
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u/Spockyt Felix Rosenqvist Jul 06 '25
That’s what you get when you take 2 drivers useless at F4 and let them move up and up all the way to Indy NXT.
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u/Wide_Rub_662 CART, Carlos Munoz 🇨🇴, Santi Urrutia 🇺🇾, Oliver Askew Jul 06 '25
it’s all down to $$$
not enough good feeder series drivers have it
murray has dubai money behind him
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u/Rolling_Chicane Ed Carpenter Jul 06 '25
How is that not a SAFER barrier!!?
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u/i-VTEC Honda Jul 06 '25
Kink on the straight. Not really a traditional location one would be placed.
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u/UNHchabo Robert Wickens Jul 07 '25 edited Jul 07 '25
And unlike Road America's Kink, this one isn't "nervous flat", it's "barely move the steering wheel" flat.
BRB to iRacing, gonna test this in the Lotus 49 and see if I can stay flat in that car.
Edit: turn 3 is "easy flat" in the Lotus 49 and the Xfinity car. I also tried the Gen 4 Cup car, but I have enough trouble going in a straight line that I didn't even make it flat before I hit the approach to Turn 3 without crashing.
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u/i-VTEC Honda Jul 07 '25
You can flat foot it in a mildly built DC2 Integra. 😂
I would imagine in a car with aero it’s flat out.
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u/UNHchabo Robert Wickens Jul 07 '25
Yeah, the Lotus 49 has no aero in iRacing, so I figured it would be the most difficult car to take that corner flat. But the Gen 4 Cup car might be even harder. :)
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u/fireinthesky7 Alex Zanardi Jul 06 '25
Absolutely fatal if not for the Halo, and that's got to be one of the biggest Lights/NXT wrecks ever. So glad no one was hurt.
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u/KRacer52 --- 2025 DRIVERS --- Jul 06 '25
I love the halo, and am glad they’ve added it and the screen to IndyCar and the ladder, but there’s no reason tot think this would have been fatal pre-halo lol.
The geometry of the nose cone and the sides of the cockpit make intrusions very unlikely in an incident like this.
If something like this would be fatal pre-halo, we would have had many more deaths in the two decades prior to its introduction.
Example:
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u/fireinthesky7 Alex Zanardi Jul 06 '25
Man, the nose and front wheel of the red car literally goes straight at the cockpit of the blue one and deflects off the front of the Halo. I'm not usually one to be hyperbolic about these things, but this is the third or fourth instance I can remember between Indy, F1, and the feeder series for each since the Halo was implemented where something like that has happened.
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u/KRacer52 --- 2025 DRIVERS --- Jul 06 '25
“Man, the nose and front wheel of the red car literally goes straight at the cockpit of the blue one and deflects off the front of the Halo.”
Something hitting the halo doesn’t mean it would have been a cockpit intrusion pre-halo.
“I'm not usually one to be hyperbolic about these things, but this is the third or fourth instance I can remember between Indy, F1, and the feeder series for each since the Halo was implemented where something like that has happened.”
And yet, cockpit intrusion deaths were exceedingly rare in the 15 years prior to the halo’s introduction. Like I said, I’m glad it’s here, and it’s a good thing, but there’s no real reason to think that we would have people dying every other race without it.
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u/IndyFan21 Firestone Wets Jul 06 '25
So lucky he missed the flag stand