The Andretti Autosport-Honda ace, who scored his seventh IndyCar win earlier this month, had already found misfortune in preparing for his fourth Indianapolis 500. On the warm-up lap for his first qualifying run last Saturday, his Honda engine failed.
A major effort by the #26 Gainbridge crew members and some of their colleagues in the AA team ensured he went back out. The swift turn around was good enough to earn crew chief Nick Allen this year’s Clint Brawner Award. But in hot and dense air conditions of the afternoon, Herta could manage a four-lap average speed good enough for only 25th on the grid.
Then on Carb Day, in the 90min session that serves as warm-up for Sunday’s race, Herta suffered a huge crash, when his car twitched once, then twice at Turn 1, and slid hard into the SAFER barrier. As the barrier pushed the right-side nose wheel under the car, that appeared to raise it up far enough that the air took hold and flipped the car upside down, and the car slid upside down along the short chute to make contact with the Turn 2 wall.
The damage was bad enough that the team has had to build up the backup car for the race.
Because of the violence of the impact, although Herta was checked and released by IndyCar Medical, the accelerometer recorded a high enough g-force whereby, the 22-year old needed to be reevaluated today. This has now been done, and Herta has been cleared to drive. Despite racing a different chassis than the one in which he qualified, Herta can take the start from his grid slot, the inside of the ninth row.
