It has been confirmed that Alex Rossi will start the 2026 Indy 500 on Sunday. The 2016 winner of this legendary race had a massive crash in practice early Monday afternoon.
Sunday had been a tremendous day for the 34-year-old. Having made it through to the Fast Six, a huge improvement from the Fast 12 saw the ECR driver put it on the front row, missing out on pole to Alex Palou.
Pato O’Ward analyses Alex Rossi practice accident at the 2026 Indy 500
Talking to the media outside the medical centre once he was cleared, Pato O’Ward explained what happened from his point of view.
Rossi was two cars in front of him when the driver of car #20 lost the rear through turn 2, hitting the wall at massive speed. Traffic running was the focus for all 33 drivers ahead of Sunday’s 200-lap contest. While the Mexican did his absolute best to avoid hitting the ECR machine, he could not.
Romain Grosjean also spun and crashed as he looked to take evasive action, and he managed to avoid hitting both cars because of it. The Mexican and French drivers were seen and released from the IndyCar medical centre.
“I saw Rossi spinning and it’s really tough to stop these cars in the middle, especially in the middle of a corner when you smash the brake, and it’s obviously very heavily rearwards. We didn’t really have a lot of stopping power with how we all run the brakes.
“So yeah, at that point I was just trying to kind of get away with it. But as soon as I called the car down because I knew Rossi’s car was going to bounce off the wall. If not, I would have probably t-boned him. That’s where the rear kind of went for me and lost it there.
“So yeah, I just feel for the guys that got to rebuild a new car but I’m sure they’re going to build me something that’s going to feel like nothing happened.”
On Friday afternoon in a press conference, Alex Rossi confirmed he was passed fit to race on Sunday afternoon.
