Zach Price, the rear tire changer for Ryan Blaney’s No. 12 Team Penske team, who was struck between two cars on pit road during Sunday’s Big Machine Hand Sanitizer 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, will not be at Kentucky Speedway this weekend as he continues to recover from injuries sustained in the pit road incident.
Team Penske announced that Price would be absent this weekend on Tuesday afternoon with a statement. The statement read:
“Zach Price continues to recover at home from a lower left leg injury sustained following Sunday’s pit road incident at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Curtis Thompson will serve as rear tire changer for the No. 12 Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang this weekend at Kentucky.”
Price was struck by Brennan Poole’s No. 15 machine as Poole was trying to avoid an eight-car pileup ahead of him on pit road. Unfortunately, Poole was unable to miss the carnage and even more unfortunately, he made contact with Price, which injured the crewman.
Video: Ryan Blaney Crew Member Injured in Wild Pit Road Crash at Indianapolis
Thompson, who filled in for the No. 12 team for Price after the incident, will again take over tire changer duties for the team this week. Thompson has been a member of the No. 32 Go Fas Racing team, which was involved in the pit road collision on Sunday.
Kyle Power will serve as the interim tire changer on the No. 32 GFR team this weekend.
Curtis Thompson – primary rear tire changer for @GoFasRacing32 — will sub for an injured Zach Price as rear tire changer on @Team_Penske's No. 12
Kyle Power will serve as the interim rear tire changer for @CoreyLaJoie's No. 32 Sunday at Kentucky.#NASCAR | @KySpeedway
— Joseph Srigley (@joe_srigley) July 7, 2020
Although specific injuries have not been disclosed, team crew chief Todd Gordon told Sirius XM NASCAR Radio on Monday that he believed Price had a fracture of some kind in his knee.