Lightning halted what was an intense, hectic practice session after an hour and m18 minutes. The day after qualifying practice saw lots of running in traffic. Pole sitter Alex Palou was one of the last cars to get on track.

Josef Newgarden had the fastest lap,. 226.198 mph, when practice was stopped due to lightning in the area.

Thirty minutes into the session, the track’s 2026 incident free streak ended with a serious crash in turn 2 involving Alexander Rossi, Pato O’Ward, and Romain Grosjean. Rossi went too low in turn 2, spun hard into the outside wall, lifting the front of his car.

O’Ward spun trying to avoid Rossi, bit slammed into the side of Rossi’s car/ Romain Grosjean also spun to avoid the incident, brushing the wall and sliding to the grass on the inside of the track.

The older I get. the more accidents like this bother me. I am thankful for the safety innovations IndyCar has implemented. A look at Rossi’s aeroscreen after today’s incident shows that the safety features work.

O’Ward and Grosjean were seen and released by the medical staff. Rossi was sent to a local hospital for further evaluation. I will post an update as soon as I have one.

I took a couple of photos of both cars. O’Ward’s looks repairable. I’m not sure Rossi’s is. Replacing the car is allowed and if rossi is cleared to drive, he will keep his number two starting spot. If Rossi is unable to drive, the car will move to the rear of the field.

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