One fan has been pronounced dead after the lightning strike at Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Pocono Speedway, track officials confirmed today.
A tweet from the track posted just before 8 p.m. ET:
"Our sincerest thoughts and prayers with those involved in today's lightning strike at the Raceway. Unfortunately, one of our fans, who was critically injured, was pronounced D.O.A. at the Pocono Medical Center in Stroudsburg. Further information will be available upon notification of family. We ask for our fans to please keep all affected, and their families, in your prayers."
With lightning storms at the track, a Pocono Raceway spokesperson had confirmed earlier in the day a total of 10 people were injured by lightning - 2 critical, 1 moderate, 2 minor, 5 treated/released.
More information was released later in the evening - the victim was a 41-year-old man who was struck by lightning following the stoppage of Sunday's Cup race at Pocono.
At least nine more people were also treated for the same reason, one of them being in critical condition while the rest had minor to moderate injuries and were taken to hospital.
Fans at the track were warned about the approaching storm which eventually caused the race to be called off when only 98 of the scheduled 160 laps had been completed.
According to various reports, the fan killed was either in or around a car in one of the track's parking lots when the lightning hit.
"We are deeply saddened that a fan has died and others were injured by lightning strikes following today's race at Pocono," said NASCAR spokesman David Higdon.
"Our thoughts are with them as well as all those affected by this unfortunate accident."
Jeff Gordon, who was declared the winner of the event as he was leading the field when the last caution waved, was also saddened when informed fans had been struck by lightning.
"There was a huge, huge crack from lightning," said Gordon. "You could tell it was very close. I mean, that's the thing that's going to take away from the victory is the fact that somebody was affected by that.
"I mean, the fans here are so loyal and avid. When we were going back to the garage area, there was a group of fans chanting up there that were not leaving."