Terrifying footage of Indy 500 car flipping during race

What was supposed to be a happy day at the races turned into a frightening moment that left the audience in a state of panic.

In the last 20 laps at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Felix Rosenqvist hit the outside wall, spinning back onto the track, and slamming into with Kyle Kirkwood.

The footage, posted on Reddit, shows Kirkwood immediately losing a tire in the impact, causing his car to spin around 180 degrees, before he forcefully hits the wall.

Two drivers of the Indy 500 race made a lucky escape after a horrific collision / CNBC

Kirkwood's vehicle then flipped upside down before it came to a screeching stop. The clip then transitions to Kirkwood who can be seen upside down, trying to get ahold of what just happened.

Soon after, the support team asked Kirkwood if he was alright, before the red light was signalled and safety workers quickly came to his rescue.

They helped the driver out in which he gave a thumbs up to the emergency crew and waved to the crowd before being escorted for a medical check up.

What's scarier than the crash itself is Kirkwood's tyre that was sheared off from the collision. The wheel can be seen flying over the wall of the grandstands towards the crowd, which could've been a serious threat to nearby spectators.

Luckily, no one was harmed, though an unfortunate owner of a white sedan found the extent of the wheel's damage when they discovered a huge dent in their car in the parking lot.

One viewer called it 'the luckiest day in history of the Indy 500.' / CNBC

In response to the online community asking Kirkwood why he took off his visor in the clip, he posted on X: 'Genuinely appreciate everyone concerned about my well being and telling me I should keep my visor down.

'But CLEARLY it was not intentional. It was an instinctive reaction to being upside down in the pitch black without sense of where I was or the rate in which I was still moving.'

Redditors are shocked at the footage and lucky that there wasn't any serious harm to anyone involved.

One replied: 'A cool detail is him removing his hands from the steering wheel as soon as he knows there’s nothing he can do to save it.

'The wheel can and will cause serious hand/wrist injuries upon impact so most racers are trained to remove once they have lost complete control of the vehicle.'

Another comment read: 'The tire would have killed someone if it had landed in the crowd. Massive luck on this one.'

Another viewer described the event as 'the luckiest day in history of the Indy 500.'