Saturday is the first day of qualifying for the 108th running of the Indianapolis 500, and at least two drivers will be turning fast laps with their backup cars.
Nolan Siegel is one who will be running in a backup Dallara chassis, with his primary Dale Coyne Racing car being damaged in his dramatic crash on Friday afternoon.
The 19-year-old lost control of his car in Turn 2, spun into the wall, then ended up sliding down the track upside down.
Siegel’s hits were relatively tame compared to the severity of crashes that can happen while running nearly at 240 MPH, but the flip obviously caused enough damage to cause concern.
He will be running the team’s road course car, which was used last weekend at the Sonsio Grand Prix, but will still have the same Honda engine powering him around the track.
Marcus Ericsson will also be using a backup chassis after his dramatic crash on Thursday, in which the Swede hit the outside wall, inside wall, and pit lane attenuator before coming to rest.
Ericsson and his Andretti team had the advantage of running the backup chassis during Fast Friday, which allowed them to tweak in the settings on the backup car before the critically important qualifying runs begin.
The 2022 Indy 500 champion also has years of experience to call upon in his sub-optimal situation, something Siegel, as a rookie, does not have at all.
Linus Lundqvist also crashed heavily earlier in the week, but it was determined that his primary chassis was undamaged and will continue to be used.
Aside from the two drivers using backup chassis, a couple drivers have been forced to fit new engines during the first week of practice.
Arrow McLaren swapped out Kyle Larson’s Chevy engine earlier in the week to prevent an issue the team saw on data from becoming a bigger problem.
The change caused the NASCAR star to lose out of valuable track time, but was not more problematic than that.
Alex Palou also had to wait for a new engine to be installed in his #10 CGR entry on Friday, although his team was forced into the swap after smoke was seen streaming from the back of his Honda engine on the back stretch and oil was left in his pit box.
All teams that have made large changes will triple-check their work before sending their drivers out on track for their four-lap qualifying runs on Saturday.
