Officials at Charlotte Motor Speedway have confirmed that six fans were injured during Saturday night’s Bank of America 500 NASCAR race when a lite of glass in an unoccupied suite in Turn 1 broke loose late in the race.
“A pane of glass fell from an unoccupied suite,” spokesman Scott Cooper said Wednesday. “The glass broke inward. It shattered the way it should have, but some of the glass fell forward. Six fans were evaluated or treated and released on property and returned to the race.”
Cooper said he did not know what type of glass fell from the suite or who might have fabricated it.
Kevin Fox of Fort Mill, S.C., was also quoted by the Charlotte Observer as saying that he was sitting in the Grand National Tower South, Section EE, when he first heard a noise from above sometime after the 200-lap mark of the 334-lap event.
“I thought someone had fell or dropped a cooler or something and then I started feeling things fall on me and it turned out to be glass,” he said.
Fox said the area was “covered” in broken glass and that he, his mom and several other fans suffered minor cuts. He also was struck on the head by what he believes was a larger piece of glass.
“It was very strange,” he was quoted as saying. “In the heat of the moment, it was hard to figure out what was going on.”
Fox said he left his name and number with the track’s guest services staff, but had not been contacted by the speedway as of Monday afternoon.
The incident is the second this year at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in which spectators were hurt during a NASCAR race. Ten fans were injured during the Coca-Cola 600 on May 26 when a nylon rope supporting a Fox Sports overhead television camera fell into the grandstands and onto the track, delaying the race.
As a result, NASCAR later banned broadcast networks from using the cable-held aerial cameras.
Brad Keselowski won the Bank of America 500 race on Saturday night.
