On Lap 106, the rear end of the #28 DHL-backed car stepped out at Turn 2, and he went sliding into the SAFER barrier backward. The former Formula 1 driver sounded very winded on the radio as he apologized, but he was checked and cleared at the infield medical center.
He told IndyCar Radio, “All good, all good, just disappointed to finish that way. What happened? No idea. The rear end snapped on me without any warning.
“Two guys got caught out in this corner [Rinus VeeKay of Ed Carpenter Racing on Lap 39 and Callum Ilott of Juncos Hollinger Racing on Lap 69]. It was a corner where my car was pretty good over the race. So I don’t what happened. I didn’t try anything different.
“I was behind Marco [Andretti, teammate] saving a lot of fuel and being happy with the balance. So I don’t know. We’ll try and analyze and understand and move on from that.”
Asked if he had enjoyed his first Month of May, the 35-year-old said, “Right now it’s bittersweet because it’s not the way I wanted to finish the race, really. I wanted to have a good race.
“We didn’t have a brilliant pitstop today, and I don’t know what was happening on the restart [engine] map but I felt like I was very low on power on the restart map, kept losing positions every restart.
“I need to understand that, need to understand what we can do better, and need to understand why I spun, and come back stronger next week and the week after.”
