Crashes, spins, and pit lane prang in wild IndyCar practice

Scott McLaughlin wound up fastest for Team Penske, setting a 17.313s to go 0.033s faster than IndyCar Series points leader Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing.

Pato O’Ward (McLaren), David Malukas (Meyer Shank Racing), and Alexander Rossi (McLaren) completed the top five while Australia’s title hopeful Will Power was 10th.

Marcus Ericsson of Andretti Global was the first to fall victim on the ⅞ of a mile oval when he lost control on entry to turn three.

His car made vicious contact with the outside wall, damaging the right rear and right front whilst also plucking the wing off.

Another look at the incident involving @Ericsson_Marcus.

The No. 28 driver has been seen and released.

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— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) July 12, 2024

There were a series of near misses too. O’Ward escaped a clumsy incident with Josef Newgarden after the Team Penske driver slowed suddenly on the racing line.

On her return to the series, Katherine Legge narrowly avoided hitting the wall in her Dale Coyne Racing car.

She got loose into the final turn and slid into a spin, avoiding any contact in the process.

.@katherinelegge goes for a long slide but avoids any damage!

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— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) July 12, 2024

AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci had a similar incident. He got loose mid-corner and slid up toward the wall and just escaped hitting the SAFER barrier.

Perhaps the most bizarre incident of the day came in the closing minutes when Agustin Canapino spun on his own following Power.

He ended up facing backwards before spinning the car back around in the right direction.

What followed were strange scenes as the Juncos Hollinger Racing driver came into the pit lane and cut Scott Dixon’s nose off.

A whole lot transpired there.

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Dixon, it appeared, was trying to pass a slow Canapino, who then turned across to go into his pit bay and made contact with the Chip Ganassi Racing driver.

“Power slowed a lot,” said Canapino.

“I don’t know what happened there. I think he (was going) to the pits but he slowed down too much.

“I don’t know Dixon is doing? I don’t know. He is confusing. I don’t know what happened. Crazy end of a session. It’s only racing accidents. Nobody wants to receive that.”

After that interview, Dixon and Canapino were seen talking over the incident and shaking hands.

Aksed what he wanted to say to Canapino, Dixon replied, “Just sorry.”

He explained, “We’re pitted right behind their sister car and I thought it was [Romain] Grosjean.

“He [Canapino] was going extremely slow so I thought we were going to be able to swing by on the inside.

“Obviously his pit was right there. It was all at slow speed so nothing chaotic there. We had a little touch.”

The session wound up with McLaughlin spinning in the closing minutes of the session. That brought out the yellow and marked the conclusion of practice.

IndyCar Series: Iowa Speedway, practice results