Violent crash sends Kyffin Simpson airborne in scary Indy 500 practice shunt

Only 50 minutes into Friday’s Indy 500 practice, disaster struck for Kyffin Simpson and the No. 8 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. Several drivers had already breached 230mph in lap averages with the boost turned up, including Scott McLaughlin, who nearly reached 234mph over the course of a lap.

The 20-year-old Simpson was making his first run of the day when the car wobbled at the exit of Turn 4 before spinning. The car slammed the wall and immediately lifted up off the ground, going fully airborne before landing on its side. Simpson’s car promptly returned to its wheels before crashing into the inside wall as well, coming to a rest at the entrance of pit road.

“Yeah I’m okay,” radioed Simpson. “But man, that was loose.”

Moments after the incident, Alexander Rossi had a close call with an AMR safety truck that was arriving at the scene. Rossi was frustrated, gesturing at the safety truck and voicing his displeasure over the radio.

Simpson: “It was a weird one”

As for Simpson, the CGR driver was checked and released from the infield care center without issue. However, the team needs to go to a backup car as the damage to his primary was too severe. The stoppage was also extended as repairs needed to be made to the SAFER Barrier at the exit of Turn 4. The session resumed after almost 40 minutes.

“I’m all good,” Simpson told IndyCar on FOX. “It’s a tough way to start out Fast Friday. Just a weird crash. Everything about it was weird.”

He explained further: “It was weird even from the outlap. Just something didn’t really feel quite right. I kept going right on the weight jacker and tried to help the car out and it just never really felt the way I expected it to. It was just a weird one. We’ll go back, look at some data, try to figure out what might have been wrong and try to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

The only other incident during the previous three days of practice was a rather innocent spin by Christian Rasmussen, who escaped with minimal damage after looping his car on Thursday.