The 4X #Indy500 champion ends his day in the turn 2 wall.
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) April 20, 2022
Check out the incident that brought out the yellow flag at @IMS.
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Castroneves, defending race-winner, who last year joined AJ Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears in the four-time Indy winner ‘club’ had run 10 laps of the two-hour session. He was sitting second fastest to Conor Daly’s Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet, when as he emerged for another run, he spun on the warm-up lane that follows pit exit.
The fuchsia and black car looped into a spin over the grass on the inside of Turn 2, and crossed the track to make heavy contact with the outside wall with the right side of his car.
Castroneves looked devastated but unhurt after alighting from the MSR-Honda, and the car was carried via flat-bed truck back to the MSR garage on Gasoline Alley.
The accident followed a far more innocuous incident on the warm-up lane this morning for another Indy 500 winner, Alexander Rossi. The #27 Andretti Autosport-Honda spun after straightening up for the little spurt along the inside of the track’s short chute, but Rossi managed to avoid the inside wall and continued his installation lap.
Barely 20mins after Castroneves’ shunt, his former teammate Will Power completed a 360deg spin on the strip of grass that separates Turn 1 from pitlane exit. As he gathered up the #12 Team Penske-Chevrolet, its rear was still hanging over the racing line at the apex of Turn 1 when Herta arrived on the scene. The Andretti Autosport-Honda driver moved up half a lane to avoid contact, but that was enough to put it in a drift and eventually send it out of control.
Another early end to the day. This time for @ColtonHerta.
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) April 20, 2022
The No. 26 brought out the yellow flag for this incident exiting turn 1 at @IMS.
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Herta’s car tagged the outside wall with its rear wing, and slid b broadside with wheels locked down to the inside of Turn 2. A closely following Marcus Ericsson, managed to squeeze his Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda through the gap between Herta and the concrete wall on the inside, having also been the first driver to arrive on the scene of the Castroneves shunt.
The session was expected to resume with around 40mins remaining but was called early after inspection of the pit exit by IndyCar officials.
