SPEEDWAY — After a relatively clean month of May, Carb Day brought back-to-back crashes at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
In the final practice before the Indianapolis 500, rookie David Malukas made contact with Santino Ferrucci heading into turn one, lost control of the car, and hit the outside wall.
Malukas exited the car on his own and was quickly cleared at the infield care center. Ferrucci later received a penalty for initiating contact and lost 20 minutes of practice time.
“When I started to spin, I went to mummy stance because it was too late,” said Malukas. “Now it’s all about forgetting about it and making sure we’re focused on the race.”
A few laps later, Colton Herta lost control of his car coming out of turn one and heading into turn two, hit the barrier, flipped upside down, and slid.
Once the car was flipped to the correct side, Herta got out on his own, and was later cleared.
“It all happened so fast. It’s was like 60 or 70 Gs of a hit. It’s impressive when you get a hit like that and you’re still standing,” said Herta. “It’s the worst feeling in the world hanging upside down, so it was really nice they were able to get me back super fast and roll back over.”
Both drivers said they were mentally and physically fine thanks to safety improvements over the years, but the cars were not so lucky. Malukas and his crew will work to fix the No. 18, and Herta will drive a backup car.