Fort Worth, TX (June 10, 2017) – What started as an exciting race with both Dale Coyne Racing cars running in the top six, ended in disaster and heartbreak when both Tristan Vautier and Ed Jones were taken out of contention in the same multi-car incident on Lap 153.
Both DCR drivers were having an excellent race with Vautier fighting for the lead and rookie Jones making his way up as high as sixth at one point from his 19th place on the starting grid.
While Jones was gaining positions, and climbing into the top 10 in the first part of the race, Vautier led about a dozen laps while fighting with Ganassi and Penske drivers.
Things were still looking up for the Dale Coyne team at the halfway mark of the race as they were fighting for the win, with Vautier sitting fourth and Jones seventh.
Following a restart on Lap 148, things would soon take a turn for the worse. A handful of laps after the restart, Tony Kanaan got into the side of James Hinchcliffe who then lost control of his car. Unfortunately for Vautier, he was at the wrong place at the wrong time and got caught collected by Hinchcliffe which then sent him into the wall.
In the meantime, in trying to avoid the incident, Jones slowed down to avoid the cars in front of him, but in doing so was rammed from behind causing race ending damage to the #19 Boy Scouts of America car. Both drivers were uninjured in the incident.
The team will now regroup and head back to its Plainfield, Illinois base and get ready for the next round on the Verizon IndyCar Series schedule at Road America, June 25, 2017.
Tristan Vautier- #18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda
“I think I showed everything I could tonight, I gave it my all and I raced really hard. I’m happy we maximized everything, it’s just a shame to be taken out by something out of our control, and the team really did not need another crash because of all of the crash damage they already had. I tried my best to avoid that and race well. Sometimes you can’t do anything about it.”
Ed Jones – #19 Boy Scouts of America Honda
“The guys were trying to run three wide, I think Tony (Kanaan) didn’t leave them enough room. So they crashed, I backed off and hit the brakes, and then I got collected from behind and there’s nothing I could do about that. It put me in the wall and game over. Super frustrating to the team, two extremely fast cars, came from 19th and I think we had a chance to win that one. That’s what hurts most.”
(How frustrating is it that your cars were so fast and yet you got collected in the incident) “I feel bad for Dale (Coyne, team owner). Dale’s put so much work into this team. We’ve been so quick this year, but we’ve had a lot of incidents – this is my first incident. It’s painful, but he keeps coming back and coming back stronger every time.”
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