Colton Herta was involved in a horror crash ahead of the Indy 500 as the Andretti Autosport driver was rushed to the medical centre to be checked over. The incident occurred during Friday’s Carb Day final practice session ahead of Sunday’s main race.
Herta appeared to approach Turn 1 too quickly and the rear of his car smashed into the barrier at the side of the track. The car then flipped upside down and scraped along the ground before hitting Turn 2 and eventually coming to a halt on the back straight.
The 22-year-old was on the radio to inform team bosses that he was okay before the car had even stopped and was told by his father Bryan, who is Andretti Autosport’s strategist, to remain strapped in until the safety crew could get to him. “We’re all good,” Herta junior said over his radio.
“Everybody’s backing down – you’re safe now,” his father replied. “Just wait for safety to get here. Just stay strapped in. Safety is here now. Just stay strapped in. Don’t unstrap, you’ll fall out the bottom.”
The crash was the first major one at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in which a car had landed upside down since the introduction of the aeroscreen, the cockpit safety device that was introduced to the series two years ago.
“A little bit of sadness for that race car,” the driver said after his crash. “It sucks. It seemed like it was okay. We were really loose that whole session. I think I was just going a little bit too fast for that corner. Wiggled and the air got underneath it. But yeah, I’m all good. I’m fine.
“Thankful for a lot of things. I guess the aeroscreen is part of that. But more so the AMR safety crew and the durability of the sidepods and all the side structure of the cars because that was a big hit from the side. And yeah for the safety crews, they were very fast to flip me back over.”
“Colton is fine,” IndyCar director of medical services Dr Geoffrey Billows later revealed outside the track’s infield care centre. “He was speaking with his team on the radio before the AMR safety team even got there. He arrived at the infield care centre – walked in himself. He’s been evaluated and initially cleared. Has passed his initial concussion screen with flying colours.
“IndyCar has a policy if accelerometer data on the car reaches a certain threshold, we’d do more thorough testing. And we’re just waiting to get that accelerometer data – and then I’ll suspect he’ll be walking out that door.”