AJ Allmendinger: IndyCar not an option after Justin Wilson’s death
DAYTONA BEACH, Florida – Don’t expect to see AJ Allmendinger attempt the Indianapolis 500 anytime soon.
Allmendinger said Tuesday the death of his friend Justin Wilson made him decide he won’t drive any IndyCar races until the series has closed cockpits.
“The moment Justin Wilson passed away I said ‘Never again,’” Allmendinger said about the 500. “The only way I would do it is if they put in a closed cockpit over the car and tested it and they thought that was a good direction in safety then I might think about doing it again.”
Wilson was killed at Pocono in August when he was struck in the helmet by a piece of debris from a crashed car. Closed cockpits or cockpit canopies have been offered as potential safety solutions after Wilson’s death. However, for various reasons, including tradition, the suggestions haven’t come close to being a reality.
Allmendinger, who raced three years in CART before making the move to NASCAR, finished seventh in the 2013 Indianapolis 500 while driving a partial schedule for Team Penske. He hasn’t driven an IndyCar race since, though he’s been considered the most logical candidate outside of Kurt Busch if a NASCAR driver was to ever attempt the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 in the same day again.
Busch ran both races in 2014.
“The basis of Indy car racing is open cockpit,” Allmendinger said. “Stuff like that has always been more at risk to happen. But every form of racing is doing the job to make it safer. NASCAR continually works on the racetracks and inside the cars. The direction with all the testing that they’re doing that they showed in the safety meeting is progress. Will you ever get to the day when you strap in a race car and say, ‘Ah, there’s no chance of something really bad happening?’ Well, no. That’s a part of racing that will always be there, but the best thing we can do is make it as safe as possible. It is way safer than it was 15 years ago. It’s getting better. When it comes to the IndyCar side of it, that took a big part of me away right there.”
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
