Colton Herta and the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda from Andretti Global will have to work extremely hard just to get into the 109th Indianapolis 500, after a nasty wreck Saturday during qualifying.
Herta was in the process of making his four-lap qualifying run at Indianapolis Motor Speedway when his entry snapped around at the exit of the first corner, spinning around hard into the outside wall with the left front.
Some other looks at Colton Herta’s wreck during qualifying. pic.twitter.com/BinVfzCnFF
— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) May 17, 2025
The 25-year-old driver was just along for the ride, with his car lifting up into the air and setting back down on its lid, before sliding all the way to the outside SAFER Barrier in Turn 2, where it impacted while upside down.
Luckily, Herta was able to emerge from his Gainbridge-sponsored entry unscathed, and after a trip to the IndyCar Medical Center, was checked, released, and approved to get back onto the racetrack.
Driver’s cam look of Colton Herta’s crash. pic.twitter.com/p6IrWlfjAu
— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) May 17, 2025
After emerging from the Medical Center, Herta spoke to FOX Sports about the incident: “Yeah, I’m fine,” Herta said. “Luckily, nowadays these crashes look a lot scarier than they feel. Not to say that one felt good, but I think the team’s going to be hard at work trying to get the backup car ready.”
“It’s going to be probably impossible to get out today, we’ll have to see what we can do, but I mean a terrible day for this to happen. It was kind of no real signs leading to it, we were really happy with the car this morning, and went out and just loose, couldn’t even get Lap 1 done.”
Herta is the fourth driver to have a major crash at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend, joining Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyffin Simpson, who had a similar-looking accident earlier this week, as well as 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson, and Meyer Shank Racing driver Marcus Armstrong.
