Chase Johnson hospitalized after altercation with Sonoma Raceway security

The team post said the sprint car driver was in a wheelchair as he was tossed by security at Sonoma Raceway during the NASCAR race; Sending him back to the hospital

Chase Johnson is a sprint car driver that was severely injured in a sprint car crash. He suffered multiple vertebrae fractures in the incident on August 2nd, 2024.

The crash at Silver Dollar Speedway landed the driver in a wheelchair.

He’s been in recovery ever since. Last year he shared an update from the hospital, “It’s been a tough road to get to this point, the most pain I’ve ever experienced in my whole life. Didn’t know that pain could be this hard, but I’ve been working really, really hard to get better.”

On Sunday, the NASCAR Cup Series raced at Sonoma Raceway. Chase Johnson was there and according to a now deleted Facebook post from the Chase Johnson Racing page, there was an altercation between Chase and security at the track.

According to the post, that altercation sent Chase to the hospital:

Chase Johnson Racing shared the following:

“Sunday, July 13th at the NASCAR race at Sonoma Raceway, Chase was physically assaulted and hurt by this security guard on pit row,” the team opened via a now deleted social media post.

“Chase was physically pushed hard enough to flip him and his wheelchair completely backwards and upside down. When his head hit the concrete, he lost consciousness for about 15 seconds.”

“We spent the next hour in the med center at the racetrack, then went directly to the hospital after that, where he was at until early Monday morning.”

The story

“Here is the story: Chase and Hayley were leaving the race track headed back to the truck that was parked at the handicap parking lot which is in a completely different area than the normal parking lots.”

“The security guard at the top of the pit row gave them direction to go down pit road towards turn 11 to exit. They finally made it all the way down to the end of pit road to the exit where another security guard was at.”

“He then for some reason said we needed credentials to exit. We showed him the appropriate credentials.”

“At the same time, individuals with the same credentials were allowed by at this same moment. We asked him multiple times to call his supervisor. We tried to explain that was are parked in the handicap parking lot not the normal parking lot.”

“He also went on to tell us that another ‘crippled’ that was worse than I was, had to turn around and go back the other way. After this point, he said he wasn’t going to get his supervisor and told Chase he wasn’t going anywhere.”

“Immediately after those words he shoved Chase backwards with his hands on his chest. He flew backwards with his hands on his chest.”

“He flew backwards with the chair. It was a hard enough push to completely flip the wheelchair over the wheelie bars/tip bars. He hit his head on the ground, along with his neck, back and shoulders.”

Chase Johnson went to the hospital

“Chase woke up on the ground with Hayley in a panic holding his head. The crowd of people and other witnesses around were shocked and in panic trying to get help and medical attention.”

“The NASCAR medical team and some other officials came over, checked out Chase. They helped him back into his chair. Then, they took him to the Med Center and they suggested that he should go to the hospital.”

“We went to Kaiser in Santa Rosa, spent a little over eight hours there. Chase had CT scans on his head, neck and back. In the CT scan, they found a 5mm crack on C1.”

“This then prompted a MRI, which resulted in showing spinal swelling to the C6 and T2 areas on the spinal cord. The doctors had a difficult time determining if these injuries were part of Chase’s initial injury or if these were new.”

“He was released early Monday morning, and was recommended to wear a neck collar to the next couple weeks or until he feels better.”

“Chase’s wheelchair also has damage. The back rest is broken along with the back of the chair now scratched from the pavement.”

“The Sonoma County Sheriff was there at Sonoma Raceway and ended up taking him to the Sonoma County jail.”

The post above from CJR has since been deleted.

Links

Chase Johnson Racing