A late restart was attempted with one lap to go in the Grand Prix of Arlington, but a multi-car crash coming to the green led to the inaugural IndyCar event to finishing under caution.
Television replays did not show the incident well, but the aftermath revealed that three drivers were involved in the tight corner leading to the front straight.
After the weekend was complete, IndyCar officials deemed Kyffin Simpson to be at fault for the incident. He was penalized well after the official results, with his final position being amended from 19th to 20th.
Simpson talked ahead of the Barber Motorsports Park race weekend, explaining what happened that led to the collision between himself, Nolan Sigel, and Romain Grosjean with just over one lap remaining.
“From my side, I felt everyone really got movement out of Turn 12 on the restart,” said the third-year driver.
“As we were coming around the bending left, things were real spread out. I felt there was going to be good pace through 14.
“As we got there, things checked up a lot. Quite a few people were moving out of line and back into line, that caused a bit more of an accordion effect as well.
“All of those things combined, I misjudged how much everyone was going to check up and got into the back of Siegel.”
Simpson was already scored near the back of the lead lap cars, and thus only lost one position due to the penalty.
Felix Rosenqvist, who was also penalized for jumping the same restart and had been scored in 20th, was moved one place forward to 19th.
Simpson does not carry a penalty into this weekend’s race at Barber, and will start from where he qualifies barring any further incidents.
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