For the second straight day of practice for the Indianapolis 500, a car made contact with the outside wall at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
This time, James Davison, who has struggled to gain and keep consistent speed, lost control of his car coming out of Turn 2, spun and hit the wall hard on the left side.
Davison extricated himself out of the car and walked under his own power to the waiting rescue squad to take him to the infield medical center.
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“I felt absolutely nothing and then I was backwards,” Davison said after being medically cleared and released. “That was definitely a new experience for me here at Indy or driving on ovals, in general.
“I guess I became one of the drivers to slam the wall at Indianapolis, so I joined the club today. It’s not ideal, but we had to try some things. We were 32nd quickest, right on the bubble, and we’re not going to go faster just looking at it.
“We’ll regroup, see what we can pull out of the bag tomorrow and give it everything again.”
Davison had just ran a lap of 224.405 mph in his No. 33 Foyt with Byrd/Hollinger/Belardi Chevrolet prior to the incident. His car suffered extensive left side damage and it’s unclear if he’ll have to go to a backup car for Saturday’s and Sunday’s qualifying sessions.
“It’s just too early for me to tell,” Davison said. “From the damage I saw, I didn’t see the tub was hurt. I think the biggest thing you hope for is the gear box isn’t (damaged), because generally the back-up stuff isn’t going to be as good or fast. We’ll just have to have a look and go from there.”
The 31-year-old Australian has competed in the last three Indy 500s, finishing 16th in 2014, 27th in 2015 and 20th last year, filling in for Sebastien Bourdais, who broke his hip and pelvis during qualifying for last year’s race.