Wickens’ crash adds to team’s tough weekend
INDIANAPOLIS — Sam Schmidt’s week just got even more complicated.
Two days after top driver James Hinchcliffe failed to make the Indianapolis 500 starting grid, the team’s other full-time driver, Robert Wickens, crashed Monday during the second-to-last practice for Sunday’s race. So in addition to finding a way to get one of the team’s two Canadian drivers into the 33-car starting field, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports now must repair Wickens’ car, too.
“It’s all relative for the Indianapolis 500 because you want to contend,” Schmidt said a few minutes before Wickens hit the wall exiting the second turn.
Wickens hit the wall again in the back straightaway when the No. 6 car made an abrupt right turn because of a broken suspension and rolled to a stop in the third turn. The next practice is not until Friday.
“It’s a bummer, obviously, no one wants it, especially this close to the race,” he said. “Lesson learned, I guess. It just happened out of nowhere. I am fine, I mean these cars are super safe. First crash in an Indy car, so I guess it had to happen eventually.”
As the drivers rolled out to pit lane for practice, Hinchcliffe walked around in street clothes promoting a blood drive in the Gasoline Alley suites. A life-threatening leg injury he sustained at Indy in 2015 gave him the idea.
The popular 2016 Indy pole winner and the face of a national Honda advertising campaign did not answer questions about finding a ride. He is fifth in the points standings and missing Indy, a double points race, could take him out of championship contention. He said Sunday he didn’t expect to have a car in the race and Schmidt didn’t sound any more optimistic a day later. IndyCar has said it will not expand the field, meaning his only option would be to take the ride of a driver already in the lineup, perhaps teammate Jay Howard in the No. 7 that qualified 19th.
“There’s been a lot of talk, obviously,” Schmidt said. “But our only option is with a Honda team. It’s not a completely dead deal. But if we were going to get him in, we would have liked to have had him in the car today.”
Schmidt declined to say what the asking price was from other teams. Schmidt told reporters that Hinchcliffe’s sponsors have agreed to put their logos on the cars of Howard and Wickens, who qualified 18th.
If Hinchcliffe competed in another car, he would start from the back of the field.