DAYTONA BEACH, Florida, Feb 24, (Agencies): A pile-up at the Daytona speedway on Saturday injured at least 28 fans after a 10-car crash sent car debris, including a tire, flying into the crowd in the final lap of the Nationwide NASCAR race. Race officials said 14 fans were sent to nearby hospitals and another 14 were treated at the Florida track, which will host the prestigious Daytona 500 race on Sunday. “Stuff was flying everywhere,” spectator Terry Huckaby, whose brother was sent to the hospital with a leg injury, told the ESPN sports network. “Tires were flying by and smoke and everything else.” Among the injured were a 14-year-old boy in critical but stable condition, and a man who was in surgery for a life-threatening head injury, according to ESPN.com.

Joie Chitwood, president of the Daytona International Speedway, said Sunday’s main race would go ahead despite the incident as crews were repairing the track and the grandstand. “First and foremost, our thoughts and prayers are with our race fans,” Chitwood said. “Following the incident, we responded appropriately according to our safety protocols and had emergency medical personnel at the incident immediately.” Tony Stewart won the race at Saturday’s event, which is the curtain-raiser for American stock car racing’s biggest event on Sunday which will feature Danica Patrick as the first woman to start on pole position. Saturday’s wreck happened after driver Regan Smith, who was leading the race, attempted to block another driver as they were nearing the checkered flag and hit the other car, a report on NASCAR.com said.

“My fault,” Smith, who finished 14th, told NASCAR.com. “I threw a block. I’ll take the blame for it. But when you see the checkered flag at Daytona, you’re going to block, and you’re going to do everything you can to be the first car back to the stripe. It just didn’t work out today. Just hoping everything is okay, everyone who was in the wreck and all the fans.” The crash sent driver Kyle Larson’s car airborne and ripped out its engine, although he climbed out of the wreckage afterward unhurt.

“I was getting pushed from behind, it felt like,” Larson told ESPN after the crash. “By the time my spotter said, ‘Lift,’ or to go low, I believe, it was too late and I was in the wreck. Then I felt like it was slowing down, and it looked like I could see the ground, and had some flames in the cockpit. Luckily, I was all right and could get out of the car quick,” he added. The injured were carried away on stretchers from the chaotic scene in the stands. They were taken to Halifax Health Medical Center and Florida Hospital Memorial Medical Center in Daytona Beach.

Aprilia riders Sylvain Guintoli and Eugene Laverty swapped first and second placings on Sunday in the two races that made up the opening round of the Superbike World Championship in Phillip Island, Australia.
Guintoli of France, who started from the second row, passed factory teammate Laverty on the 15th lap and went on to win the 22-lap first race by 1.352 seconds. The win was his fourth in the world championship and his first at Phillip Island. Northern Island’s Laverty held off Italy’s Michel Fabrizo for second place as Aprilia completed a clean sweep of the podium placings.

Spaniard Carlos Checa, who started from pole position on his Ducati after setting a lap record of 1 minute, 30.234 seconds in practice on Saturday, crashed at turn four on lap 13 and didn’t finish. Places were reversed in the second race with Laverty beating Guintoli into second by 0.418 seconds. This time, it was Guintoli who led for much of the race before being passed by his teammate. World No. 3 Marco Melandri of Italy, who was brought down in the same crash as Checa in the first race, was third on a BMW and Fabrizio fourth. The next round of the championships is at Aragon, Spain from April 12 to 14.