Ed Carpenter Racing’s No. 20 Chevrolet got hit by everything but the pace car in Iowa. Smashed out of Saturday’s race in an incident triggered by Team Penske’s Will Power, the extensively-damaged car was brought back to working order with help from mechanics from Rinus VeeKay’s sister No. 21 entry. But their effort wasn’t rewarded.
Sunday’s race came within 10 seconds of being over and sending an unscathed No. 20 entry back to the garage in one piece, but Ed Carpenter was hit by the cartoon anvil once more as a crash involving Sting Ray Robb and Alexander Rossi ended with the hindquarters of the No. 20 resting atop the aeroscreen of Kyle Kirkwood’s No. 27 Andretti Global Honda after it ricocheted off the wall and launched over Rossi’s No. 7 Arrow McLaren entry.
And so, with the next race just days away on the streets of Toronto – where Christian Rasmussen will resume his road/street course duties in the No. 20 – the second intensive rebuild in as many days began.
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“We did build a different car for Toronto, just because the amount of damage to those two cars was not going to be repaired in a day and a half, effectively, before the trucks had to get going to Canada,” ECR general manager Tim Broyles told RACER.
“We have a rotation of cars, so going to a different car wasn’t the plan, but we have the inventory and had the rotation to do it.”
Amid unrelenting summer heat, ECR and the other NTT IndyCar Series have endured an exhausting three-week stretch that started in Mid-Ohio, ran through the Iowa doubleheaders, and concludes on the streets of Toronto.
“With what everybody’s been going through the last three weeks and knowing that this type of thing could happen at any moment, you have that in back your mind and you’re prepared to react to a bad crash if you had to do that. And unfortunately, we did.” Broyles said.
“It’s just testament to our crew, it really is. They’re organized and thinking ahead, and everybody’s working together to make sure we have our ducks in a row. So when these things happen, it’s easier to pivot and move forward instead of having to scramble. It’s leaders we have like Bret Schmidtt and Jeff Grahn and our crew chiefs, Jimmie Johnson and Austin Shepard, that have the mindset to hope for the best, prepare for the worst. And that’s where we’re at, and where we ended up.”