Aiden Price spends his weekdays running simulator laps for General Motors’ Cadillac Formula 1 program in Charlotte. He is 16 years old. On weekends, he races dirt sprint cars because there are things a simulator simply cannot teach you. Friday night at Attica Raceway Park in Ohio was supposed to be one of those learning experiences. Rather, it turned into something much worse.
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Price was third in the AFCS 410 Sprint Series feature when the right front tire either cut or blew off the bead heading into Turn 1. The car cartwheeled twice, then balanced on its nose in the air before slowly tipping over and coming down. Addressing that, Price wrote on X,
“I remember sitting there on my nose balancing in the air and just remember seeing the whole car slowly start to fall,” Price wrote in a public statement. “Think this isn’t gonna be good at all before I actually landed.”
The first hospital called it a compressed fracture. Then came the MRI. Price had a T10 burst fracture, which is a different animal entirely. A burst fracture shatters, sending fragments outward toward the spinal cord. Price confirmed he still has full movement but faces surgery back home.
“No major issues with the spinal cord but it is in their concern on the way it is broken,” he wrote.
Alex Bowman did this same thing. He was racing a dirt sprint car mid-week at 34 Raceway during a High Limit Racing event, broke his back, and missed races for his Hendrick Motorsports team. He tried to come back quickly. Too quickly, by his own admission. The back problems dragged on for three years and eventually triggered severe vertigo.
What makes this situation bigger than just a racing injury is what Price does the rest of the week. He validates suspension upgrades in the Cadillac F1 simulator, runs tire correlation data, and crosses over to log laps for the LMDh and IndyCar programs too.
Before the 2026 Miami Grand Prix, he flagged a suspension change in the simulator that his father, a GM manufacturing manager, had made overnight, and he flew to the race the next morning.
Alex Bowman eventually made a straightforward call after his injury. Dirt racing on hold. His Cup Series career came first. GM will almost certainly make the same call for Price, and they will not need to think hard about it. The investment around a 16-year-old with an F1 contract is not one you risk on Saturday night sprint car features.
Price ended his statement by thanking the Attica track workers, his crew, and the family who rode with him in the ambulance. He also mentioned he had the speed to win that night before everything went wrong. He probably did. That part just does not matter much right now.