Indianapolis – Scott McLaughlin crashed his Penske car in Sunday afternoon and ruined his opportunity to repeat the Earning career with Pole de Indianapolis 500 last year.
McLaughlin qualified on Saturday within the top 12 and was eligible to run for pole later on Sunday. But he turned in Indianapolis Motor Speedway and immediately lifted both hands to his helmet while preparing to hit the wall 2.
The neozyous car was destroyed and the Penske team said they would place it in 12 and would not even attempt a classification race on Sunday. The car in which the team was working for McLaughlin is Penske’s backup Speedway car and had been assigned for its teammate Josef Newgarden to use it in the competition of the boxes crew next week.
McLaughlin, who last year led a schedule of penske of the front row in the qualification, was clearly deflated after being released from the medical center.
“I’m fine, I’m very, very, very, very, I’m very sorry for everyone in the Penske team,” McLaughlin said. “I was talking to me and I felt it, and I should probably have backed down, but you are trying to complete a career to see how it feels and worth the risk. Probably not. I am incredibly sad.”
He said he felt fortunate that the car was not in the air on the uptake, but the accident caused damage to the track surface that IMS workers were trusting during a strike created by their accident.
“They can build a new car for me, but I am really detention more than anything,” McLaughlin said. “It’s hard to take, as if you wish it was for something, but it wasn’t for anything, right? In practice.”
McLaughlin was also shaken when he saw his wife cry after his accident for concern for him.
“They are nervous about me,” he said. “I wanted to get out of the car immediately so I knew it was fine.”
There have been three hard accidents in the last two days in Indianapolis. Marcus Armstrong and Colton Herta crashed on Saturday and Armstrong has to qualify on Sunday for the 33rd field using a road support car and in the street course. Herta described within the top 30 to lock himself in the field once his car was ready for qualification.
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