Karthikeyan ends up 15th in NASCAR race after pile-up

TALLADEGA - Indias Narain Karthikeyan got caught up in a pile-up when running sixth and could not complete the course, finishing 15th in the NASCAR series race here.

Karthikeyan began promisingly by moving four places within the first five laps of the race Saturday. Thereafter, the on-track positions kept changing in view of cautions following contacts between the vehicles.

With four laps remaining, Karthikeyan was running sixth when Ron Hornadays truck flipped over on the race track. Several other trucks were unable to avoid this wreck that took out championship leader Todd Bodine and Karthikeyan.

It felt great running sixth during the race. The speed and the bump drafting was incredible, because all of the trucks are racing so close to each other. We averaged roughly a speed of 300 kmph every lap,” Karthikeyan said.

We were running so well until those last few laps when there was a wreck in front of me and we got caught in it.”

This weekend overall was great. My crew was so helpful in teaching me the tricks of racing at a superspeedway. It was definitely very different than anything I have ever raced at. The banking is unbelievable, said Karthikeyan.