'The chassis stood up well to the impact' to a horrific crash for Briscoe at Chicagoland source: irl.racing-live.com Shards of carbon fiber fell on the Chicagoland Speedway racing surface like confetti after the No. 33 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Panoz driven by Ryan Briscoe disintegrated upon impact with the SAFER Barrier and retaining fence between Turns 3 and 4 early at Chicagoland. Contact between the IndyCar Series rookie's right-front tire and the left-rear of the No. 51 Red Bull Cheever Racing car driven by Alex Barron triggered the fierce and fiery crash that left the car in pieces and Briscoe with two broken clavicles, a fractured bone in his foot, concussion and a bruised lung. He is recovering at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. But the integrity of the cockpit - an aluminium honeycomb reinforced on both sides by carbon fiber - remained intact, which essentially protected Briscoe like a cocoon. His broken clavicles, according to Indy Racing League track safety coordinator Dave Brown were the result of the high G forces working against the HANS device. Untethered feet led to the foot fracture. "Judging by the ferocity of the accident, everything that we had anticipated the car to do did exactly as we expected," said Les Mactaggert, IRL senior technical director. "The chassis stood up well to the impact. There was some minor damage to the lower left-hand corner, which I think was caused by the top edge of the SAFER Barrier as the chassis came down, and some damage to the rear when it hit the track. But the inside of the chassis was completely intact, and from our perspective that's the important aspect because it's where the driver is sitting."
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