That new car smell

 Robin Matthews could count herself one of the luckiest and unluckiest people in America Sunday afternoon.

Lucky because she was in a packed grandstand outside turn two at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and along with everyone else did not get hit by a tire that came spinning off Kyle Kirkwood's car and over the fence late in the day.

It was a heart-stopping moment because the wayward tire sailed directly over the grandstand, and had it landed in the grandstand someone likely would have died.

But it didn't.

Instead, it landed in the parking lot behind the grandstand. On Robin Matthews car.

Which is where the "unluckiest" part came in. It was like getting all the numbers right on a lottery ticket except the last one. 

For her part, Matthews thought she was being pranked when friends told her the tire hit her car. I don't know how she reacted when she found out otherwise, but I know how I would have.

"You have GOT to be kidding me," would have been the leader in the clubhouse. Followed closely by "Really?"

But we all love happy endings, and this story has one. 

See, Roger Penske's going to give Matthews a new car.

OK, so not Penske personally, but Penske Entertainment, which runs the Speedway. So Matthews really is lucky, it turns out, because who figures on going to the Indianapolis 500 and coming out of the deal with a new car?