Colton Herta was the 14th driver on track for Indianapolis 500 qualifying on Saturday, but he never made it through Turn 1 on his first flying lap. The incident that followed ended up halting qualifying for about 18 minutes.
Herta's No. 26 Honda snapped around, sending the Andretti Global driver backwards into the wall. Facing the wrong direction, the rear of the car immediately lifted and went airborne, landing upside down in a frightening crash. The car then slid upside down in a shower of sparks until hitting the Turn 2 wall in another significant impact.
The AMR Safety Team quickly arrived on the scene, carefully pushing the car back onto its wheels. Herta, 25, climbed from the car under his own power before walking away gingerly. He was going approximately 235 mph when he lost control.
Scary moment here with Colton Herta. He would get of the car and walk away on his own 🙏 pic.twitter.com/mAVjTPZQWy
— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) May 17, 2025
This is the second airborne crash of the week after Kyffin Simpson on Fast Friday, but his car promptly returned to its wheels. Unfortunately, this was not the case for Herta.
Herta has since been checked and released from the infield care center. While cleared to return to competition, the team will be forced to go to a backup car.
Herta reacts
"Yeah, I'm fine," Herta told IndyCar on FOX. "Luckily, nowadays, these crashes look a lot scarier than they feel -- not to say that one felt good. I think the team is going to be hard at work right now trying to get the backup car ready, and it's probably going to be impossible to get out today. We'll have to see what we can do. Just a terrible day for this to happen.
"And, no real signs leading to it. We were super happy with the car this morning, and go out and it's just loose. Couldn't even get Lap 1 done. So, yeah, it sucks, but I'm good and we'll keep going."
An onboard view of Herta's accident:
Driver's cam look of Colton Herta's crash earlier today. pic.twitter.com/D1HC4Wmcut
— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) May 17, 2025
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