Spectacular crash mars the start of the IndyCar Series race in Texas

Several drivers were taken out in a spectacular Lap 1 crash Sunday in the IndyCar race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Pietro Fittipaldi got into Sebastien Bourdais in the middle of the pack as the field crossed the starting line. The crash collected Tony Kanaan, Conor Daly, Ed Jones, Alexander Rossi and Dalton Kellett. After getting repairs, Kanaan returned to the track about 100 laps into the 248-lap event.

It appears all the drivers escaped largely unhurt, though Fittipaldi reported suffering a sprain to a finger.

Fittipaldi said he had nowhere to go as Bourdais and others in front of him slowed unexpectedly as the green flag flew.

"We were behind Seb running well, they backed up ahead and there was no room to go anywhere," Fittipaldi said. "I hit Seb, turned him around and there was a huge accident. There was no time to go anywhere, especially on the outside."

Daly joked that he filled another square on his Bingo car by being knocked upside down.

"Being upside down isn’t fun," he said. "On the Bingo card of terrible things to happen to us this year, I don’t know what’s next. It’s been a tough start."

Bourdais also crashed in Saturday night's weekend opener. Rossi has had a lot of tough luck already this season and is far behind in points.

Rossi said he believes there was enough time for qualifying on Sunday morning so that more experienced drivers could have earned better starting positions, lessening the chance that such a crash would occur.

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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IndyCar: Spectacular Lap 1 crash takes out several drivers at Texas