In motorsports, the catch fence is the last thing standing between a racing car and the crowd. And it is easy to treat that word as another piece of racing jargon, to consign it to oblivion – that is, until the moment a car climbs into it and reminds everyone why it exists.

That’s exactly what happened on the night of May 9, when Canadian short track racer JR Fitzpatrick was racing in the Bob Finley Memorial at Owosso Speedway. Following a suspected throttle issue, his car appeared to climb the Turn 1 wall, tearing down part of the catchfence, per spectators.

Naturally, the footage, shared by Bench Racing on social media, went viral almost instantly, and a fan recording the video was screaming as it happened. The reactions that followed cut straight to the bone of what makes racing at this level genuinely terrifying.

Thankfully, one of the tweets stated that JR Fitzpatrick sustained no injuries. “After that wreck last night that’s gone viral, it’s just a huge plus that JR Fitzpatrick walked out in one piece and went back to his family unharmed. This car is absolutely killer, man. Holy s–,” said the user on X,

It is rather important to note here that short-track racing operates in a completely different safety ecosystem from NASCAR. There’s no Next Gen car here, no HANS device mandated across the board, no well-funded safety research programme sitting behind every team.

Moreover, the sanctioning of safety at the grassroots level varies wildly. Some events are meticulously policed; others are not. Cars are sometimes built on shoestring budgets, where pace takes priority over protection. That is the reality Fitzpatrick was racing in.

Moreover, John Ryan Fitzpatrick is a multi-champion across several Canadian series, including the 2006 CASCAR Super Series title, which he won at 18, making him the youngest champion in that series’ history. He was also the inaugural Rookie of the Year in what became the NASCAR Pinty’s Series. His résumé stretches from the NASCAR Xfinity Series to the Craftsman Truck Series, with 16 Truck starts and some other Xfinity appearances.

He didn’t stumble into short track racing, since he came to it by choice. So, this was a driver with enough calibre, who knew what he was doing, which made fans stop mid-scroll.

Short Track Racing crash creates commotion among fans

Fans immediately pointed to the experience of feeling the air pressure shift as cars blur past – which is truly intoxicating – as also holding plenty of risk.

“That’s why they say don’t stand near the fence,” one fan said. Referring to the same, one of the other fans strongly advised against it: “I DON’T CARE HOW COOL IT IS. NEVER SIT IN THE F— SPLASH ZONE AT A TRACK!!”

The fear behind that capital-letter fury is rooted in much proof.

In August 2019, at Williams Grove Speedway in Pennsylvania, a car flipped over the infield fence and landed on a spectator’s pickup truck, killing 67-year-old Richard Speck Jr., who was watching from the truck bed. Austin Dillon’s Daytona crash in 2015 sent debris over the catchfence, injuring five fans, one seriously enough to require hospital treatment. And while the fence stopped the car both times, it doesn’t always.

So when fans found out Fitzpatrick had walked away unhurt, the relief was palpable. “Not only is homeboy alive, but apparently he’s not even hurt. It’s amazing what a properly built racecar can take.”

And the night apparently had more than one such concerning moment.

One user noted, “I think we’re at two tonight. Can’t remember where, but there was a late model stock with a hung throttle that got ballparked earlier too,” referring to Ty Williams’ crash at the Kansas State Fairgrounds, where a stuck throttle sent his car off the fence.

Fans also drew comparisons to the incidents that had already defined the 2026 season.

Just weeks earlier at Kansas, Carson Kvapil’s No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet was launched into the air after contact with another car. He flipped multiple times and slid along the backstretch on its roof before coming to rest upside down near Turn 3.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who was on vacation when it happened, found out via a text from his sister Kelley to his wife Amy, and his response immediately established the shock factor:

“Flipped? Thought Talladega was next week? We could flip at Daytona, we could flip at Talladega, we ain’t supposed to flip anywhere else.”

And then there was the Ryan Preece comparison: “Ryan Preece, is that you?”

At the 2023 Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona, Preece’s No. 41 car was contacted by Erik Jones on the backstretch, veered left across teammate Chase Briscoe’s nose, and then barrel-rolled at least 10 times through the infield grass before coming to a halt.

Preece emerged under his own power, got onto a stretcher, and was later transferred to Halifax Medical Center, from which he was discharged the following morning. The NASCAR car, with all its mandated safety infrastructure, absorbed that.

And like Preece, as one user posted, “#16 JR Fitzpatrick is out of the car under his own power. The track is being clean up so we can return to racing soon!”

Nasty is one word for it. The other word, the one that hangs over every piece of short track safety discussion that follows a night like this, is ‘lucky’.