Indy 500 qualifying: Colton Herta suffers terrifying wreck

Colton Herta was involved in a terrifying crash during Indianapolis 500 qualifying on Saturday.

He was entering Turns 1 and 2 at 236 mph when he lost control of his vehicle and spun around. The No. 26 car hit his front end into the wall on the backstretch. As he drove backward, Herta’s car went airborne and flipped over.

The car continued down the backstretch and into Turns 3 and 4. It clung to the wall before it came to a stop.

Herta was able to get out of the car and walk away from the frightening accident.

“I’m fine. Luckily, nowadays, these crashes look scarier than they feel,” Herta told FOX Sports after leaving the emergency care center. “Not to say that that one felt good, but I think the team’s gonna be hard at work right now trying to get the backup car ready. It’ll probably be impossible to try to get it out today.

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“Terrible day for this to happen. . . . No real signs leading to it. We were super happy with the car this morning and go out loose. We couldn’t even get Lap 1 done. So, yeah, it sucks but I’m good. We’ll keep going.”

As of Saturday, Herta was a 16-1 shot to win the Indy 500.

Herta has nine wins in his IndyCar Series career. He last won at Nashville to end the 2024 season. He had three top-10 finishes this year and one top-5 finish.

He will enter the Indy 500 ninth in the points standings. He was seventh last season at Indy.

The Indy 500 will be broadcast May 25 on FOX with pre-coverage starting at 10 a.m. ET. It will also be available to stream live on FOXSports.com and the FOX Sports app.

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