INDIANAPOLIS -- Kyle Kaiser became the fourth driver in three days to slam the wall in Indianapolis 500 practice, nearly flipping his Dallara-Chevrolet after a heavy impact Friday in Turn 3.
Kaiser was checked at the care center and cleared to drive after destroying the front and right side of his No. 32 in the crash, which happened 51 minutes into the Fast Friday practice that began at 11 a.m. ET.
“I’m fine,” Kaiser told Dillon Welch on the NBC Sports Gold broadcast. “I’m very fortunate that the technology and safety within the car has gotten as good as it has today because I felt it. So extremely grateful to be here to talk with you guys now.
“Overall, I felt like I lost it in the middle of the corner. There really wasn’t much I could do. It felt pretty good in the first opening laps. We’ll have to look at the data and see what happened. We’ll have to see what our options are, but obviously, we’ll do everything we can to qualify for this race.”
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The Juncos Racing driver was driving a blank white car after losing its primary sponsor this month.
Asked by NBCSN’s Kelli Stavast about the prospects of putting Kaiser in a car for qualifying Saturday, team owner Richard Juncos said, “I don’t know at this point. It’s too recent for the situation. We know this can happen. It’s no surprise.”
Stavast later reported that Juncos Racing was moving forward with preparing the backup car amidst increasing sponsor interest for being in the May 26 race.
Friday marked the first practice in which teams were given extra boost of 30 horsepower in preparation for qualifying Saturday and Sunday.
In addition to Kaiser, Felix Rosenqvist and Fernando Alonso crashed Wednesday, and Pato O’Ward hit the wall Thursday.