Wickens crashes at Indy 500 practice

Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS

Robert Wickens crashed Monday during the second-to-last practice for the Indianapolis 500, another headache for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports just two days after top driver James Hinchcliffe failed to make the field for the showcase race.

In addition to finding a way to get one of its two Canadian drivers into the 33-car starting field, the team now must repair Wickens’ car, too. The final practice is Friday, two days before the race.

“It’s been a very rough two weeks, to be honest,” team general manager Pierre Phillips said. “There’s a long way to go to race day, so we’ll be there.”

Wickens hit the outside wall coming out of the second turn, then hit it again in the back straightaway when the No. 6 car made an abrupt right turn because of a broken right front suspension and rolled to a stop in the third turn. Phillips called the car a “mess” and said there was “fairly severe” damage to the right side. As for Wickens, it was his first taste of real taste of trouble on the 2.5-mile oval.

“It’s a bummer, obviously, no one wants it, especially this close to the race,” said. “Lesson learned, I guess.”