James Davison has been confirmed as Dale Coyne Racing’s substitute for Sebastien Bourdais for the remainder of the Indianapolis 500, following the Frenchman’s violent incident during Saturday qualifying.
During the third lap of his qualifying attempt Bourdais speared into the SAFER barrier at Turn 2, utterly destroying his car and even momentarily going upside down.
The Holmatro Safety Team were immediately on the scene and successfully extracted Bourdais from his car, transferring him via ambulance to the IU Methodist Hospital where he was diagnosed with multiple fractures to his pelvis and a fracture to his right hip.
Davison will be making his third start at the Indianapolis 500 and fifth overall start in the IndyCar Series, after initially making his debut with Dale Coyne Racing in 2013 at Mid-Ohio.
"First off my thoughts are with Sebastien and Claire Bourdais in this unfortunate time," explained Davison to RACER.
"This is the last way a driver wants to secure an opportunity.
"We're certainly going to do the best we can with the time and equipment we have.
"We only have the road course car to build from, so we'll be starting last and Dale has the best mechanics and crew guys here, so I'll be ready to go as soon as they tell me it's time.”
With Bourdais’ original race car a complete write-off after his monumental shunt, Dale Coyne Racing has no other option than to take the road course car used for the INDYCAR GP last week and completely reconfigure it to oval specification for the rest of the week.
Davison will likely take to the track for his first practice session later in the week, once the car has been fully altered for oval racing and the team’s other drivers Ed Jones and Pippa Mann have successfully qualified.
