Disastrous start for NZ drivers at Indy 500
- NZ Sports Wire
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
The three New Zealand drivers have had starts to forget at the 109th Indianapolis 500 on Sunday (Monday NZ Time).
Team Penske's Scott McLaughlin crashed out during the pace laps, Scott Dixon had smoke and fire coming from his left rear tyre on the warm-up laps and Marcus Armstrong almost got taken out on the opening lap.
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After light rain fell to delay the start of the race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, McLaughlin spun while swerving to heat up his tyres, hitting the inside wall at the end of the front straight.
"I really have no idea what happened," a devastated McLaughlin said after being cleared at the medical unit. "Just really upset for my team, they gave me a fantastic car again.
"I'm really sorry to my sponsors, my fans, my family. I don't know what happened. I still can't believe we're out of the race. I had so much hope today.
"By far the worst day of my life. That's probably dramatic, whatever. I put so much into this race, everyone does, and we didn't even see the green flag."
Seconds after cameras caught the front damage to McLaughlin's No 3 Chevrolet, the broadcast showed smoke and then fire from Dixon's No 9 Chip Ganassi Honda from overheated brakes.
Dixon, starting on the inside of the second row, was told to stay off his brakes during the remaining pace laps to avoid a pre-race pitstop. Once the race got underway, he quickly dropped from fourth to seventh, before more light rain fell brought out the safety car.
The 44-year-old lost further places when the air jack failed during a pitstop under caution, and more when he made another stop to replace the problematic brakes.
Just after crossing the start/finish line on lap 1, Armstrong, who started 32nd, was almost collected by a spinning Marco Andretti at the first corner. He made slight contact but was able to continue in the race.
When the race restarted on lap 31 with Dixon on pit-lane, Armstrong was 27th and Dixon, who rejoined the race three laps down, in 31st.
Dixon ran the rest of the race three laps down, eventually finishing 23rd, while Armstrong rose as high as 16th but was never in the reckoning, finishing 21st.
