![\"Pato](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/05-22-OWard.jpg\")
<\/p>\nOne accident earlier in the week left two NTT INDYCAR SERIES drivers driving backup cars in Friday\u2019s Miller Lite Carb Day practice at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n
Alexander Rossi and Pato O\u2019Ward, whose cars made hard contact in Turn 2 in Monday\u2019s practice, had different responses to final preparations for the 110th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge.<\/p>\n
Rossi was his usual reserved self, saying ECR\u2019s No. 20 Java House Chevrolet was ready for Sunday\u2019s race while politely sidestepping questions about the left middle finger and right ankle he injured and that required outpatient minor surgery Monday night. O\u2019Ward was more detailed in his assessment of his No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet in the two-hour practice, but he, like Rossi, didn\u2019t explain what led him to wind up in the bottom half of the lap times.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Ward\u2019s best lap was 224.202 mph and ranked 20th among the 33 drivers. Rossi finished the practice with a best lap of 222.291 and ended up 31st. That\u2019s not the best news for drivers who will start the 200-lap race in the second (Rossi) and sixth (O\u2019Ward) positions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a very specific plan for today just to make sure that everything that we thought would happen would happen, and it all did,\u201d said Rossi, who won the \u201c500\u201d as a rookie in 2016. \u201cSo, we\u2019re in a really good spot for Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of driving with a brace inside his right driver\u2019s boot and the ankle\u2019s range of motion (photo, top): \u201cIt was different, but it was fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the finger: \u201cSame. Good to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both veteran drivers used nearly all of the practice\u2019s time allotted to prepare for Sunday\u2019s race, which is set for broadcast at 10 a.m. ET (FOX, FOX Deportes, FOX One, INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls). Both backup cars had been used on oval tracks last year, including Rossi\u2019s at IMS, but O\u2019Ward said his car felt different than the one that was damaged.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery car has its little details of how it likes certain setups and adjustments,\u201d he said. \u201cI think this one, as much as it was like the other, it wasn\u2019t. It\u2019s a different car.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re getting there, we are getting there. (The practice) obviously ended much better than it started, so we\u2019ve found the right direction, and I think we\u2019ve got (the car) in the window where we can work with it during the race.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It was mentioned to O\u2019Ward (photo, above) that he never said he was happy with the car.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy with where we ended the day,\u201d he said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t the happiest when (the practice) started, but the good sign is we\u2019ve gone the right direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think we know where we need to fix it, and we\u2019ve just got to throw a few things at it and see if works to get a little bit happier for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Romain Grosjean was the third driver involved in Monday\u2019s incident, but his Dale Coyne Racing crew repaired the No. 18 Bmax.IO Honda in which he will start 24th. Grosjean used the modified car Friday to post the 11th-fastest lap at 225.151.<\/p>\n
Team Penske\u2019s Josef Newgarden led the session at 228.342 with Rossi\u2019s ECR teammate, Christian Rasmussen, second at 227.474.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One accident earlier in the week left two NTT INDYCAR SERIES drivers driving backup cars in Friday\u2019s Miller…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-455269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}