INDIANAPOLIS — Nolan Siegel, 19, brought the Indianapolis 500 practice to a halt on Friday when the rookie spun coming out of Turn 2 and hit the outside wall, sending his Dale Coyne Racing entry flying through the air before it landed on its side.
Once Siegel’s battered car came to a rest, he immediately radioed to his team that he was OK.
“Disappointed,” Siegel said after he was released from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway care center. “Feel bad for the team. It’s been working so hard for so long for this. Just kind of threw it away. Not at all happy about that one.”
The wreck on Fast Friday, when teams got a horsepower boost they will use for qualifying this weekend, came after Marcus Ericsson and Linus Lundqvist were involved in separate crashes on Thursday. Ericsson went to a backup car for Andretti Global and was struggling to find speed on Friday, while Chip Ganassi Racing was able to repair Lundqvist’s car.
Siegel also expected his team to start preparing a backup car, but the wreck about 2 hours into practice didn’t leave them much time. There are 34 cars trying to make the 33-car field beginning Saturday; the top 12 will advance to the pole shootout Sunday while the four slowest will be left to their own showdown for the final three spots on the starting grid.
The 108th running of the Indy 500 is May 26.
“It certainly doesn’t do any good,” Siegel said of the wreck. “I’ll look into what I can do differently. I’m fine. I feel like I can go back and have a chance at making the race at least, but certainly a setback we didn’t need.”
Siegel drove for Dale Coyne in the $1 Million Challenge hosted by The Thermal Club and was 20th at Long Beach earlier this season. But most of his experience has been in climbing the IndyCar ladder. He was third in Indy NXT last season, winning races at Detroit and Road America, and has three podium finishes this year with a victory at St. Petersburg.
Earlier this month, United Autosports announced that Siegel would be part of its lineup in the No. 22 prototype for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He will team with Bijoy Garg and Oliver Jarvis in the LMP2 class in the prestigious endurance race in June.
