Herta, Malukas suffer shunts in Indy 500 Carb Day practice

Malukas, last year’s Indy Lights runner-up, had qualified 13^th in his Dale Coyne Racing with HMD-Honda, and was taking part in the final 90 minutes of track time ahead of Sunday’s 106^th running of the Indianapolis 500.

He was entering his 32^nd lap of the session, drafting Ferrucci’s Dreyer & Reinbold Racing-Chevrolet down the front straight, on the left side of the track. Ferrucci then moved right, to take a more conventional line into Turn 1 and Malukas drew alongside on his left.

However, as they both started turning in, the endplate on Ferrucci’s front-left wing made contact with Malukas’s right-rear tire. The Firestone instantly deflated and the Coyne car looped into a spin, striking the outside wall on the exit of Turn 1 and then sliding along the wall.

Malukas was able to step out unaided, while Ferrucci was hit with a penalty for avoidable contact, that will force him to miss the last 20 minutes of the 90-minute session. He accepted the blame for slightly misjudging when he could tuck back in behind the rookie.

The shunt for Malukas was only the second crash of this Month of May, the other being Dalton Kellett’s on Monday. The third followed soon after.

Andretti Autosport-Honda’s Colton Herta had just completed 43 laps in the session, when his car twitched at Turn 1, he gathered it up and then it let go again. It smashed into the SAFER barrier and in the impact the car’s nose elevated and the air stream flipped it over and sent it down the short chute on its roll hoop and top frame of the aeroscreen.

While still sliding upside down, Herta reassured the team he was OK, and his father Bryan, strategist, was able to assure him that the Safety Team was on its way – and to remind him not to pop his belts. Colton Herta then apologized to his team.

The AMR Safety Team were on the scene within 10 seconds and gently got the car back on its wheels, and now Herta has been checked and released from the infield medical center and passed his first concussion test. However, he has not yet been cleared to drive again until Medical learns from IndyCar’s data download what the accelerometer reading was.