LONG POND, PA.—Canadian IndyCar driver Robert Wickens was admitted to hospital with injuries to his lower extremities, right arm and spine, as well as bruised lungs, sustained in a violent wreck eight laps into Sunday’s race.

An IndyCar spokesperson said Wickens was awake and alert as he was airlifted from the track to the hospital by helicopter and was scheduled for an MRI and likely surgery.

The 29-year-old from Guelph was attempting to pass Ryan Hunter-Reay when their cars touched slightly. That caused Hunter-Reay’s car to careen into the wall, and Wickens’ car was pulled along for the ride. Once Wickens’ car soared over Hunter-Reay’s and hit the fence, it spun like a top. The fencing was shredded and Wickens’ car was reduced to just the tub, which came to rest along an interior wall.

Medical workers calmly attended to Wickens, who was taken to an ambulance before he was transported by helicopter. The impact of the wreck tore out a large section of fencing that needed almost two hours to repair.

In the end, Alexander Rossi won the race but said it was “tough to celebrate” with Wickens in the hospital.

Oakville’s James Hinchcliffe, Pietro Fittipaldi and Takuma Sato were also involved in Sunday’s wreck. Hinchcliffe seemed to be in pain, grabbing his wrists as he slowly left his car, but was cleared and released from the track medical centre and declined comment while awaiting word of Wickens’ condition.

“That’s the worst thing you can see,” said driver Sebastian Bourdais of the Wickens crash. “He’s hurt. He’s awake and alert and at least he’s alive.”

The race was delayed for nearly two hours for track repairs, and another accident when Graham Rahal ran into Spencer Pigot shortly after the restart.

“We can only hope one thing, that Robbie, Hinch and everyone involved is ok,” Rahal tweeted during the delay. “These are the dangers we face, but we always hate to see it. The start can be debated for years, but doesn’t matter right now, focus on the well-being of our friends and competitors.”

Pocono Raceway president Ben May said about 80 feet of fence and a few posts were damaged in the wreck. Bourdais raised concerns about the quality of the repairs and condition of the fence before he got back into the car, calling the work “pretty lousy.”

Said May: “It may not be the prettiest job, but it’s going to be safe.”

Hinchcliffe and Wickens form the all-Canadian Schmidt Peterson Motorsports team. They raced each other as youngsters in Toronto and Hinchcliffe helped lure Wickens to IndyCar this season after a successful career in Europe.

The crash was a grim reminder of how open-wheel racers put their lives on the line. In 2015 at Pocono, Justin Wilson died from a head injury when a piece of debris from a crashed car bounced off the track and hit his helmet.

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Hinchcliffe survived his own life-threatening injury when a broken part from his car pierced an artery during a 2015 crash at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Hinchcliffe would have bled to death if not for the medical team holding the artery together as it raced him from the track directly to a hospital. A year earlier, Hinchcliffe suffered a concussion when he was hit in the helmet by a piece of debris on the road course at Indianapolis.

Wickens had reeled off five straight top-five finishes and matched a career-best second in the last race at Mid-Ohio.

Fittipaldi had just returned from a lengthy layoff because of two broken legs suffered in Europe. Team owner Dale Coyne said Fittipaldi had a sore ankle and did not believe it was broken again.