The first round of qualifications for the 109th Indianapolis 500 took place on Saturday beginning at 11:00 AM eastern time.
Each of the 34 drivers were given one guaranteed qualifying attempt to start the session, and Colton Herta was 14th in line.
Herta did not finish his attempt, however, as his #26 Andretti Global Honda broke loose while he navigated Turn 1 at approximately 238 MPH.
His car spun 180 degrees and hit the wall hard, then the car unfortunately lifted up and flipped upside down. While sliding down the track wheels in the air, sparks were seen coming from the Aeroscreen as it scraped against the pavement.
The scariest part of the incident came when the car slid into the barriers in Turn 2, hitting directly on the Aeroscreen while the car was still upside down.
Just as they did earlier in the day for Marcus Armstrong, the AMR safety crew was on site mere moments after the car came to a rest.
Herta was able to walk away from the incident, with a bit of shakiness in his legs the only sign of what he just witnessed.
Cleared to race
Herta was evaluated and quickly released from the medical center and was also cleared to return to the car as soon as one was ready for him.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Herta confirmed on the broadcast. “Luckily nowadays these crashes look a lot scarier than they feel. Not that this one felt good.
“Team is hard at work now preparing a backup car. It will probably be impossible to get out today.
“Terrible day for this to happen. There was no real science leading to it. I was super happy this morning, then I go out and was loose and couldn’t even get lap 1 done. It sucks, but I’m good to keep going.”
The Andretti crew continues to be hard at work preparing the backup car with less than three hours left in today’s session.
If he cannot get on track this afternoon, Herta will be forced to take part in the last chance session on Sunday where he will fight for a position on the last row or face elimination from the event.
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