Castroneves, Newgarden airborne crashes spark safety concerns at Indy 500
INDIANAPOLIS -- Defending Indianapolis 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay pondered the following question: How important is the pursuit of speed at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway compared to putting on a good race and more importantly, a safe race? Hunter-Reay was left to answer that question after a second Chevrolet IndyCar flipped and went airborne from a crash in practice at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
"I miss my car from last year, that's all I have to say," Hunter-Reay said, referring to the pre-Aero Kit days when he won last year's race. "I really like good racing. When we put on a good show that is what is important. Putting on speed records here is important but where do we go after that?
"Are we going to 280 miles an hour here in 10 years?
"I really think the No. 1 goal is putting on great racing and that is what we've had here the last three years."
On Thursday, it was Josef Newgarden that went for a wild ride when he lost control of his Chevy in Turn 1 at a relatively low speed of 204 mph very late in the practice session. His car backed into the wall, the rear end lifted and Newgarden's car became airborne. It was quite similar to three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves' spectacular crash on Wednesday.
Neither driver was injured but with two Chevrolet race cars becoming airborne from crashes, it is creating a concern entering this weekend's pole qualifications for the 99th Indianapolis 500. By comparison, Pippa Mann was the only Honda driver to crash and her car remained planted on the track without getting any rearward lift.
"I'm not really sure what is going on down there but it was strange that the Chevys removed an IndyCar mandated safety piece (whicker) on the front of the car," Hunter-Reay said. "It's never good when you see cars going airborne after they get turned around. It is not a good trend. We need to think of safety first here. It's not a good thing."
Team Penske driver Simon Pagenaud was the fastest driver in Thursday's practice session with a fast lap at 228.793 mph in a Chevrolet. The Chevys are faster than the Honda cars, but the Hondas appeared to have more downforce in the rear and more drag. While that makes them a tick slower than Chevy, it may also make Honda safer.
"Obviously we are going past 230 mph, so when you are going to crash it is going to be big, right?" Pagenaud said.
He refrained from commenting about the crashes in particular because he had not had a chance to study them.
"Obviously it is not a pretty sight, but both drivers came out of the car with no injuries," Pagenaud said. "That just shows the improvement IndyCar has made on safety. That's what we need to remember. That's a very positive note."
But has IndyCar's sudden search for a new track record at the Indy 500 after 20 years of slowing down the field created unintended consequences?
"Fast is fun," Pagenaud said. "Do we want to break record? That's the thing. That's the evolution of time. Records are meant to be broken. But there's different ways to do it for sure. Right now we are trying to do it with aero. We'll see if it works. But it is certainly a lot of fun right now, let me tell you that."
Carlos Munoz of Andretti Autosport was second quick in a Honda at 228.125 mph followed by Chevy driver Sage Karam's 227.683 mph. Scott Dixon, the 2008 Indy 500 winner and three-time IndyCar champion, was fourth at 227.634 mph in a Chevrolet followed by Chip Ganassi Racing teammate and 2013 Indy 500 winner Tony Kanaan's 227.527 mph.
Up next is "Fast Friday" where each car gets to turn up the boost on the turbocharger to gain an additional 50 horsepower. That means speeds could soar into the 234 mph range or even as high as 235 mph on Friday before qualifications begins Saturday culminating with Sunday's run for the pole.
Before that happens, however, IndyCar and Chevrolet officials are going to need to look at why the cars are taking flight on impact.
"This is a dangerous sport," said Owen Snyder, the head of assembly, technical and safety for Dallara. "It's still auto racing and the speeds are up there. Always something new will happen when you get into that next realm of speed. It's a big combination of a lot of unknowns with the new superspeedway Aero Kits with the new undertray."
The Honda teams feel fortunate that so far, there have been no major issues with their Aero Kits other than the fact they have been slower than the Chevrolets on the race track.
"We haven't seen any Hondas go airborne yet and I know Honda did a lot of development with IndyCar on the safety side," said A.J. Foyt team manager Mitch Davis, a Honda team. "I think there are two philosophies there and when the Chevy turns sideways something in the rear is making it lift. Pippa Mann's car was a Honda but didn't have an opportunity to slide. Josef's incident was very strange because he was going slow.
"With all the development done over the winter they were supposed to have addressed all of that and now they will have to go back to their 'Think Tank' big time. We still have to go to Pocono and Fontana and we can't afford to have any cars going airborne at those places."
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