Penske and Ganassi control Indy 500 at halfway point

INDIANAPOLIS - The first half of the 99th Indianapolis 500 was disastrous for IndyCar’s youth movement.

Conor Daly’s car was out before the race even started with electrical issues that caused his car to smoke on the parade laps.

Early trouble

On the first lap of the race, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Sage Karam raced side-by-side in turn 1 when Takuma Sato attempted to make a daring three-wide pass on the outside.

It didn’t work.

Sato made contact with Karam, sending Karam into the outside wall. Ryan Briscoe and James Davison collided in avoidance (and on the opening lap for the second year in a row) and Briscoe was sent spinning (Crash Video).

Under the first caution of the race, Simona de Silvestro ran into the back of Juan Pablo Montoya’s car, damaging his rear wing, causing the first restart of the race to be delayed until lap 13.

The first regularly scheduled pitstop was made on lap 35 by the leader Scott Dixon. Dixon was out in 8.8 seconds.

Pit road incident

Montoya’s first stop resulted in a warning from race control as he slid through his pit box and hit an air hose. Meanwhile, Gabby Chaves will be investigated after the race for a pit road safety violation, he apparently hit his inside front tire changer who was checked and released from the infield care center.

At the 50th lap, the top ten were Dixon, Simon Pagenaud, Tony Kanaan, Helio Castroneves, Will Power, Charlie Kimball, J.R. Hildebrand, Justin Wilson, Marco Andretti and Josef Newgarden.

Second crash

Shortly after that, Bryan Clauson got high coming through turn four and hit the wall exiting the corner. He completed 61 laps and will be credited with 31st (Crash Video).

At the halfway mark, the top ten was Castroneves, Pagenaud, Power, Dixon, Kimball, Hildebrand, Ed Carpenter Oriol Servia, Kanaan and Montoya as another set of pit stops was completed.