INDYCAR Driver Nolan Siegel Not Medically Cleared For Sunday’s Race At Iowa

Bob Pockrass

FOX Motorsports Insider

NEWTON, Iowa — INDYCAR driver Nolan Siegel will miss the second race of the Iowa Speedway doubleheader weekend after a hard crash in the opener on Saturday.

Siegel was not cleared by the INDYCAR medical staff to race. His injuries were not disclosed. The Arrow McLaren No. 6 car will not compete in the 275-lap event which airs at 1 p.m. ET on FOX.

After he exited the medical center on Saturday, Siegel indicated he planned to race today despite the hard hit, which caused the race to be stopped briefly so the wall could be repaired.

“Yeah, it’s a big hit, but yeah, I’m fine, I think,” Siegel said Saturday. “We’ll be good. I’m excited for tomorrow, starting fifth. It will be a good day. It was a good day today [until the wreck].”

But after being re-evaluated Sunday morning, Siegel was not cleared. No one else changes position as there will be no car on the inside of Row 3 for the start of the race.

“There’s no place I’d rather be than out there driving today, especially from P5, one of my best starting positions of the season,” Siegel said in a statement. “I know I’m in good hands with the INDYCAR medical team and thank them for the great care they provide us drivers.

“Most of all, I feel for [my] crew. They gave me a rocket this weekend and put in a ton of work last night with hopes we’d be racing today. They deserve to be out there fighting for podium, and we’ll be back soon to do just that.”

Siegel said Saturday that the handling of his car changed late in the race.

“It was a little weird from the time I left pit lane and hadn’t had a lot of oversteer up until then,” Siegel said. “And then I just lost it in the middle of [turns] 3 and 4. I was pushing hard. … There’s not much more to it.”

The team opted not to scramble to find a driver to put in the car for the race today, considering they only got a few hours of notice. Siegel, who is 21st in the series standings, will earn three points instead of the typical five for a 27th-place finish since he is not starting the race.

“I’ve been there, I know how Nolan feels not racing today,” team principal Tony Kanaan said in a statement. “It’s the worst feeling in the world. The most important thing, though, is that he’s fit to race, and unfortunately that’s not the case today.

“It was a tough decision to park the car, but we’ve been through this before. We just found out this morning he’s not cleared, and we decided the best thing for the team is to not rush into switching drivers this weekend. It’s too much of a shuffle and unnecessary stress when we’re right back to racing in Toronto in a week.”

Kanaan said the team will work on a contingency plan for Toronto in case Siegel is not cleared. Last year, the team used a couple of substitute drivers when David Malukas broke his wrist mountain biking prior to the season.

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.