INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Alexander Rossi gave his car — and his comfort in the car — a thumbs-up Friday, clearing the final hurdle to drive in Sunday's Indianapolis 500.
The 2016 race winner crashed in practice Monday and needed surgery for an injured middle finger on his left hand and an injured right ankle. Ed Carpenter Racing officials were convinced all week that Rossi would make the start
from the No. 2 spot, a career best.Now it's all set.
“I'd like
to talk about our team and the doctors at IU Health and what they accomplished in order to get us back into this process. It's pretty exceptional,” Rossi said on pit lane. “It took a huge amount of things to go right and a great group of people I'm incredibly thankful for.”
Rossi was nowhere near the fastest car on Indianapolis Motor Speedway's 2.5-mile oval on Carb Day, the final practice session for IndyCar's biggest race. He was 31st of 33 drivers with a fast lap of 222.291 mph in his backup car — the same one he used when he led the race last year.
But that wasn't the goal. Rossi just wanted to make sure the car worked and team members wanted to make sure he was comfortable working the pedals with his specially designed brace and protective boot after he cleared a litany of tests just to get cleared to drive. The last test went off without a hitch.
Pato O'Ward, who was swept up in the crash, also switched to a backup car and gave it good marks.
Two-time Indy winner Josef Newgarden posted the fastest lap at 228.342 mph in traffic on a cool, overcast day. Christian Rasmussen was second at 227.474. Newgarden will start 23rd Sunday while Rasmussen qualified 15th.
But it wasn't a perfect day.
Marcus Ericsson, the 2022 Indy winner, brought out a yellow flag when he pulled into pit lane because he thought he had a loose right rear wheel. Turns out, it was fine.
Crew members for Felix Rosenqvist fixed an undisclosed broken part on the Swedish driver's car in time to get him back on the track before the end of practice.
And Katherine Legge, who is trying to become the first female to attempt racing's “double” — 1,100 miles of racing in one day — had communications trouble after dealing with a flight delay to get back to Indy on Thursday. Legge will start 26th in Indianapolis and will attempt to qualify for the Coca-Cola 600 on Saturday.
Rain washed out the annual pit-stop competition before the first round of stops could be completed. In the day's other big event, New York Dog held on to win the second Oscar Mayer Wienie 500.
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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
