Herta, David Malukas go into the wall during separate final practice incidents.
After one of the quietest and almost incident-free months of May at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in recent years, Friday’s Carb Day saw two significant incidents that will impact several drivers for Sunday’s 106th Running of the Indianapolis 500.
First off, rookie David Malukas and Santino Ferrucci made contact in Turn 1 early in the session. Ferrucci admitted it was his fault, but that’s little consolation as Malukas apparently suffered a tire that was cut down when they made contact and his car went straight ahead into the Turn 2 wall.
Ferrucci’s car suffered minor damage, but that wasn’t the case for Malukas, a first-year Indy 500 competitor whose team—Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports—is based in suburban Chicago. Malukas will likely have to go to a backup car for Sunday’s race.
Contact between @malukasdavid and @SantinoFerrucci puts Malukas into the turn 1 wall.
Malukas has been cleared from the @IU_Health Emergency Medical center at @IMS.#INDYCAR // #Indy500 pic.twitter.com/MhLsZX3Lwi— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) May 27, 2022
The Malukas-Ferrucci crash marked just the second incident of the last two weeks of practice and qualifying for the Indy 500. Canadian driver Dalton Kellett, who drives for A.J. Foyt Racing, spun Monday during practice and made minor contact with the wall.
The Malukas-Ferrucci incident was a virtual fender bender compared to the single-car wreck for Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta.
Herta was coming out of Turn 1 and heading into Turn 2 when he lost control, practically backing into the SAFER barrier, then flipped upside down and slid down the track for several hundred feet, all the while still upside down.
Herta was uninjured, but his car wasn’t. The Dallara tub and chassis were destroyed, leaving Andretti Autosport to scramble to salvage what it can from Herta’s smashed up car and put it onto a replacement ride.
.@ColtonHerta has been seen and released from the @IU_Health Emergency Medical center after this crash at @IMS.#INDYCAR // #Indy500 // @FollowAndretti pic.twitter.com/IxJkFZ5QgI
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) May 27, 2022
What makes that situation all the more difficult is Herta will not have any opportunity to practice the backup car or work on settings other than on the pre-race parade laps. The green flag will drop to start the race and that will be the first time Herta will drive the backup car.
“There’s a little bit of sadness for that race car,” Herta told Peacock after being released from the infield care center. “It sucks. We were really kind of loose that whole session and I think I was going a little too fast.”
He added a few moments later, “I think we were loose because it had rained and the track was green. It was all about getting the last little bit of balance out. I’m not too worried for the race. I think the car will be fine.”
2013 Indy 500 winner Tony Kanaan made a statement on Friday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
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Kanaan Quickest on Carb Day
Rain delayed the start of Carb Day and ultimately led to the originally scheduled two-hour event being shortened to just 90 minutes.
Tony Kanaan was the fastest driver in Carb Day, clocking a best speed of the 33-car field at 227.114 mph. Marcus Ericsson was second-fastest (227.004 mph), followed by Takuma Sato (226.839), pole-sitter Scott Dixon (226.696) and a surprising fifth-best performance by Sage Karam (226.517).
Sixth through 10th were Will Power (226.032 mph), Jimmie Johnson (225.974), Pato O’Ward (225.756), Marco Andretti (225.714) and Felix Rosenqvist (225.665).
Keyword: Video: Colton Herta Flips Upside Down in Massive Crash on Carb Day at Indy 500