CORRECTION/CLARIFICATION: The sentence that begins, “Eight-time NHRA Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher was the first driver to use a canopy…” was missing details. The sentence should have clarified that Schumacher was the first driver to use the canopy designed by Aerodine Composites Group that was approved by the NHRA in 2012.

LONG POND, Pa. — The incident that left Justin Wilson in a coma brought a renewed push for canopies over the exposed cockpits of Indy cars.

Minutes after Wilson was struck on the helmet by what appeared to be the nose cone of Sage Karam’s car during the late stages of Sunday’s Verizon IndyCar Series ABC Supply 500 at Pocono Raceway, Ryan Hunter-Reay addressed the subject in a subdued winner’s press conference.

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“These cars are inherently dangerous with the open cockpit like that, head exposed,” Hunter-Reay said. “Maybe in the future we can work toward some type of (canopy). We’ve seen some concept renderings of something that resemble a canopy — not a full jet fighter canopy, but something that can give us a little protection but keep the tradition of the sport.”

Canopies — plastic enclosures over open cockpits — have been proposed before, most recently after a Formula 1 crash in October 2014 that left Jules Bianchi in a coma for nine months — he died in July — and after a piece of debris struck James Hinchcliffe’s helmet during the Indianapolis Grand Prix in May 2014.

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Wilson remained in a coma in critical condition at Lehigh Valley Health Network Cedar Crest Hospital in Allentown, Pa., with what IndyCar officials described as a severe head injury. Hunter-Reay said he was told Wilson was unconscious and not responding when rescue workers reached him immediately after the incident.

Hinchcliffe eventually recovered from his incident and returned to racing, but he doesn’t recall what happened.

“There’s nothing that I remember,” Hinchcliffe told USA TODAY Sports in October. “I don’t recall anything until I was at the hospital getting discharged. The prevailing theory was I was knocked out briefly when it hit me and came to when I ran into Oriol Servia’s car. The first thing I started talking about over the radio was wanting to get my helmet off, but I don’t remember that.”

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The primary pushback against canopies is the possibility that movement and vision could be restricted. Some drivers fear being trapped in an enclosed cockpit if a car is upside down or on fire. They also worry about difficulty with peripheral vision.

Richie Crampton, who has four NHRA Top Fuel victories this season, is one of them, but he says it’s a very different conversation when you are comparing Top Fuel cars to Indy cars.

Canopies are optional in drag racing — NHRA approved them for event use in 2012 — with some drivers in the Top Fuel category using them and others not. Top Fuel dragsters can reach more than 300 mph and are the fastest class of the NHRA’s system.

“My race car doesn’t have a canopy but has a quarter-inch thick Lexan windshield taller than my helmet and angled so that anything that might hit it should glance up and over,” Crampton explained to USA TODAY Sports Monday. “Obviously we had some extremely nasty stuff happen with Justin Wilson. I would never try to be insensitive to his situation. There’s always a need for better head protection. But the types of cars are different.”

Eight-time NHRA Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher was the first driver to use the canopy designed by Aerodine Composites Group that was approved by the NHRA in 2012, and he’s heartbroken that IndyCar hasn’t developed something similar.

That’s the exact reason I use it,” Schumacher said of Wilson’s injury. “I don’t know what’s coming off the car next to me, what’s coming out of the stands. I don’t know if I’m going to hit a bird. I’ve hit three birds. I’m going 330 mph and if (the bubble) can deflect it in some way, I’d like it to do that.

“I’ll say it for the millionth time: I’m glad it’s not mandatory, but I’m surprised everyone doesn’t use it. I wouldn’t drive a car without it.”

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Top Fuel driver Antron Brown is one of the proponents of full canopies, claiming his car’s canopy prevented injury when a portion of his front wing bounced off the canopy during a crash at Atlanta Dragway in May 2014.

“(The wing) headed right back at me and hit the canopy,” Brown recalled. “It hit so hard that it buckled it but didn’t break it. I was going 315 mph at the time. If the canopy hadn’t been there to stop the wing, it would have hit me in the head. I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you today.”

The IndyCar Series began discussing canopies after Hinchcliffe’s incident. Formula 1 began testing full enclosures over the cockpits of its cars after Bianchi’s crash, while IndyCar’s safety committee discussed the possibility of a partial canopy. Neither sanctioning body has implemented such a device.

Derrick Walker, IndyCar’s president of operations and competition, said in October that a partial deflector would be preferred over a fully enclosed canopy. However, he indicated the redesign wouldn’t be available until the next generation of chassis is implemented.

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“Getting out of the car as quickly as possible is the first priority, so a front deflector section seems to be a logical step,” Walker said in October. “It would be quite an exercise to install as an add-on piece, so it would have to be a part of the chassis design. Since the next generation of Dallara chassis isn’t expected for some time, 2018 probably presents the soonest opportunity.”

In May before the Indianapolis 500, Graham Rahal said he spoke to Honda officials about the possibility of the 2018 rebuild including a closed cockpit.

“That is the most golden opportunity for this series to take a revolutionary step forward in motorsports in the world,” Rahal said at the time. “If they want to do something that can truly change motorsports, that’s their chance. A lot of that testing and development can be done right here (at Indianapolis Motor Speedway).

“You’re starting with a clean sheet of paper. What do you want to make a race car look like and what can you do to it — closed cockpit? — things like this to change open-wheel motorsports forever. You’ve got a great opportunity coming up soon.”

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Rahal is engaged to NHRA Funny Car driver Courtney Force, whose sister, Brittany, uses a cover in Top Fuel. Rahal said that exact system wouldn’t work for IndyCar because it’s held in place by two pins.

“With our risk of hitting fences and walls I’d be concerned about that thing popping open when you don’t want it to,” Rahal said Monday. “We’d have to be more creative.”

Rahal also noted that a drag race spans less than 4 seconds; Sunday’s race lasted 3 hours, 25 minutes.

“You can’t bake in there,” he said. “We have to think how we’d (design) it and build it.”

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Schumacher said IndyCar’s challenge, if it chooses this path, will be to shape a cover in such a way to allow proper visibility. An Indy car, he noted, is significantly narrower than a dragster.

“The narrower you make (the piece), the harder it is to see straight,” Schumacher said. “I’m not saying IndyCar has to make mine fit theirs — nobody’s saying that — but maybe it’s just a bubble up there. But keeping things away from the driver’s head is what matters.

Hunter-Reay said he was confident IndyCar would address the issue in light of Wilson’s accident.

“Unfortunately it’s only natural that when there is a situation like this — a dire situation — that breeds innovation,” he said.

Contributing: Brant James, Mike Hembree and Curt Cavin