Ryan Hunter-Reay led Sunday at the halfway point of the Indianapolis 500 as he looked for a second victory in "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing." But bizarre crashes captured much of the attention in Indianapolis, the AP reports. Scott McLaughlin crashed on the warmup lap while swerving to get heat in his tires. Scott Dixon had a brake fire before the race went green, then Marco Andretti crashed on the first lap. "I really have no idea what happened," a heartbroken McLaughlin said. "I can't believe we're out of the race. I had so much hope. It's the worst moment of my life."
Bizarre happenings included:
- Alexander Rossi went to pit road with smoke coming from the back of his car, only for it to erupt into flames. Rossi angrily flung his gloves over the pit road wall as he fled the fire.
- Rinus VeeKay lost his brakes and crashed on pit road.
- Robert Shwartzman, the first rookie to start from the pole since 1983, lost control entering his pit stall and hit several of his Prema Racing crew members. "As soon as I touched my brakes, the whole front just locked and I ran into my guys," he said. "It was really scary because when I braked, I was just a passenger." Shwartzman, a dual national of Israel and Russia, was making his oval debut. The 25-year-old drives under the Israel flag and is the first Israeli in the field.
- On the next restart, Kyle Larson's attempt to complete "the double" of 1,100 miles on the same day ended in a three-car collision. After the crash, Larson headed to the airport to get to Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina in time for the Coca-Cola 600. "Just bummed out," Larson said. "Try to get over this quickly and get on to Charlotte and just forget about it." A 42-minute rain delay put Larson's double attempt in jeopardy before it started. He could be seen checking his watch in the car, per the AP, as he awaited the "start your engines" command.
(More
Indianapolis 500 stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
