By: Ashley McCubbin

For some drivers and one of Ryan Blaney’s crew members, the Brickyard 400 did not go as planned right from the beginning stages.

Coming onto pit road under the competition caution at Lap 15, the back half of the field would get log-jammed together, resulting in contact between the cars, with competitors going around on pit road. The incident would result in Brennan Poole hitting one of Blaney’s crew members, while sending one of his tires flying in the process.

Zach Price, the rear tire changer, smiled and offered a thumbs up as he was loaded into the ambulance, before being transported to Indiana University Methodist Hospital. Team Penske released a statement on Sunday evening stating he was treated and released from hospital, and traveling back to North Carolina with the team for further evaluation.

Blaney sustained right-side damage and had worked his way back into the top-10, before encountering problems in the second half en route to finishing 32nd.

The list of drivers collected in the incident included Justin Allgaier, Martin Truex Jr., Corey LaJoie, Ryan Preece, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Poole.

Allgaier was driving the No. 48 Ally Racing Chevrolet in-place of Jimmie Johnson, who tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday.

““Kind of like it always has been in the past here,” he said. “Starting in the back trying to go forward, the No. 15 (Brennan Poole) actually got in the back of me. I didn’t know if I got (hit) the gentleman on the No. 12 (Ryan Blaney’s crew member) or not. Once the wreck started happening in front of us and we all got bottled-up there, one car after another were getting run into. It’s just a shame. I hate it for these guys on this Ally No. 48. They’ve done such a great job. They’ve prepared so well for the circumstances.

“Obviously, our hearts and thoughts are for Jimmie (Johnson) and his family right now. That’s the most important piece of all this is getting him back to the race track soon. And, I wanted to do well for them today and it’s disappointing to be standing here talking to you (TV interviewer) unfortunately. But we’ll go on. I don’t know what next week looks like yet. We’ll go run the Xfinity Series race and go have a good shot at it. It’s a disappointing way to end the Brickyard 400.”

Meanwhile, Truex had started near the front, though found himself in the back-half of the field after encountering mechanical issues slowing his No. 19 Toyota in the early stages of the event.

“Terrible. Disappointing,” he said. “We really only ran one lap up to speed, then we ended up having that engine deal, so it’s just disappointing. Our Auto Owners Camry felt amazing. I thought that we were going to have a great day. We ran a lap and a half, I guess, and it was feeling really good and then engine went down. The deal on pit road, that kind of happened to us last year.

“I almost aborted. I almost said I’m going to wait and come around the next lap, but the guys really wanted to get under the hood and assess the engine, and come to find out it was just a spark plug problem, so we could have easily fixed it and had a really good day. Thanks to Auto Owners and Toyota and everyone that supports us. We will come back strong and hopefully get them next week.”