Rossi ready to test pain threshold during Carb Day in final prep for 110th Indianapolis 500
By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio
Alexander Rossi has been medically cleared to park his crutches long enough to participate in today’s traditional Carb Day practice at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the final dress rehearsal for Sunday’s 110th running of the Indianapolis 500.
Alexander Rossi – Indianapolis 500 Practice – Photo by Chris Jones
Miller Lite Carb Day is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. (EDT, FS1, FOX One and INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls). On-track activity also includes the popular Oscar Mayer Indy 500 Pit Stop Challenge from 2:30 to 4 p.m.
Rossi suffered injuries to his hand and right foot in a grinding, high-speed crash in Turn 2 during Monday’s post-qualifying practice. Winner of the landmark 100th Indy 500 in 2016 as an NTT IndyCar Series rookie, Rossi qualified the No. 20 Java House Chevrolet fielded by Ed Carpenter Racing in the middle of the three-car front row Sunday afternoon via a four-lap/10-mile average speed of 231.990 mph.
Alexander Rossi – Indianapolis 500 Practice – Photo by Paul Hurley
“I am cleared to race,” Rossi declared during a Media Day interview Thursday that included pole-sitter/defending event champion Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing and No. 3 qualifier David Malukas of Team Penske. Palou secured P1 with an average speed of 232.248 mph in his No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. Malukas will make his Indy 500 debut in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet fielded by series and IMS owner Roger S. Penske.
“I will have to be on crutches because it’s a non-weight-bearing injury,” said Rossi, a 34-year-old native of Nevada City, Calif. “Fortunately to drive a race car, you don’t have to bear weight. Range of motion is good. Pain is minimal. Swelling, as you can see, I fit into my race boot. I’m good to go.”
Alexander Rossi – Indianapolis 500 Practice – Photo by Paul Hurley
Rossi confirmed his right foot is the one he uses to put pedal to the medal around the famed 2.5-mile oval. “I guess I used it a little too much on Monday,” Rossi joked. “Was out there getting it.”
Rossi triggered a frightening three-car incident in Turn 2 that collected No. 6 qualifier Pato O’Ward of Mexico and Arrow McLaren and Frenchman Romain Grosjean of Dale Coyne Racing. Running under threatening skies, Rossi spun in Turn 2, made hard contact with the SAFER Barrier and then took a secondary hit from the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet of O’Ward, who spun under braking trying to avoid Rossi. Both cars incurred heavy damage.
Grosjean, the former Formula One regular who qualified 25th on Sunday, spun his No. 18 Bmax.IO Honda into the SAFER Barrier trying to avoid the accident.
Rossi exited his car uninjured but was transported to a local hospital for further evaluation on the order of Dr. Julia Vaizer, INDYCAR Medical Director. O’Ward and Grosjean were released at the track.
“Man, this is probably the most rested I’ve been going into a 500,” Rossi said. “I feel good. It’s obviously been pretty hectic for everyone involved. Lots of things had to line up in the correct way. But feel very fortunate to be here.”
Rossi’s ECR crew has spent the week prepping an alternate No. 20 car for the remainder of the event. “The team has had quite a bit of time, unfortunately for them, to rebuild a car from scratch,” Rossi said. “It’s the car I raced last year. It’s always been a Speedway car.”
Rossi finished 28th in the 33-car field in last year’s 109th edition of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.” Rossi was running in the top-five on an alternative pit strategy when he was forced to retire on Lap 73 of the scheduled 200. The No. 20 car suffered a mechanical failure, specifically a gearbox issue that caused a dramatic fire in pit lane.
Rossi described Monday’s spin-o-rama as “a little bit of a weird one. I don’t know that there’s a specific answer. The Speedway is a punishing place for any sort of…it minimizes margins, I think. We just were a little bit too far out of that window.
“That’s the way it goes around here sometimes. Unfortunate, obviously, to have it happen. In some ways incredibly fortunate that it happened on a Monday after qualifying, where the ultimate true car speed isn’t as important. Very fortunate it didn’t happen on Carb Day. As I said, a trying couple of days for everyone involved in the No. 20 car. Also, it will be a very rewarding one if we can accomplish what we think we can on Sunday.”
Rossi confirmed the injuries to his middle finger and foot required stabilization in order for him to return to the cockpit. “There will be a (foot) brace of sorts that’s still kind of being finalized,” Rossi said. “There’s a lot of different things to consider, from a size standpoint, you got to preserve the function of being able to do that on the pedals, you have to ensure it’s providing stability, fire resistant. There’s a lot of caveats.
“It’s been an incredible team effort from no less than 12 people in order to make this happen. For what I need to do in a race car, I’m at 99 percent.”
Rossi reiterated his confidence in the chassis that had been designated as a backup. “As I said, this is the car that we’ve used here at the Speedway many times before,” said Rossi, who is teamed with fulltime series driver Christian Rasmussen of Denmark in the No. 21 Splenda Chevrolet and team-owner/oval track specialist Ed Carpenter in the No. 33 SlimFast Special Chevy.
“All through this month, we switch race running to qual sims, that requires a whole myriad of changes,” Rossi said. “If this was all new components, a different chassis, all that sort of thing, maybe you’d start to question it a little bit. This was truly going to be our race car until some other things shifted. This was built all offseason in preparation for this month to be my race car anyways.”
Rossi’s crash reportedly occurred at an estimated 207 mph. While official telemetric G-force data for the specific impact has not been publicly released by INDYCAR, the collision was described as a “massive” and “hard” impact that was significant enough to lift his car off the ground.
“I don’t know if I’m allowed to talk about the values of the two impacts, but they were very high,” Rossi said. “And the fact that we’re here having this conversation and joking about a sore ankle is pretty amazing.”
Asked to rate the level of pain he anticipates having to deal with, Rossi said, “If we do our jobs correctly, close to zero.” Rossi did not deny taking a painkiller shot for the ankle, and repeated, “I said if we do our jobs correctly, close to zero.”
Rossi also detailed the medical protocols he went through to gain clearance. “I had to drive in a sim,” Rossi said, “get in and out of the car in an appropriate amount of time. I had to show that I could react to instances quick enough with my right foot in the race car with the pedal and my boot on. That was done over several increments and durations with all of the stuff that will be on me.
“As thorough as you can be without actually being on the racetrack.”
Rossi acknowledged that part of his job involves coming to terms with the inevitability of crashing at warp speed around IMS. “Yeah, I mean, unfortunately I’ve crashed twice here. Both times have been Turn 2. For whatever reason,” Rossi said. “I recovered from that. I don’t see this being any different. We crash race cars. That’s part of the job description. Been doing it my whole career so…doesn’t really change this week.”
That said, Rossi elaborated _ quite eloquently _ on why so many INDYCAR drivers have found themselves in the spin cycle in full view of the corporate suites overlooking Turn 2.
“It’s tricky because I think it’s not shaded, so it’s always kind of in the sun,” Rossi said, adding “I guess I do know. Turn 1 and Turn 3, even though they’re higher speeds, you have the whole straight to kind of cool the tire down. Turn 4 is usually protected from wind, for the most part. There’s certain directions there’s not, but for the most part it is. It stays cool.
“The tire saturation effect that you get in Turns 1 and 3, it just has a bigger impact in Turn 2 because the conditions there are usually the worst. The tire is kind of already at its limit from going through Turn 1, then Turn 2 is a hard corner from conditions. Turn 4 the tire is also at its limit, but the conditions are easier, so it’s just less traumatic.”
In light of his injuries, Rossi was asked if he _ for even a moment _ considered not racing this weekend.
“Oh, absolutely not,” Rossi said. “No.”
The 110th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge is scheduled for Sunday (10 a.m. EDT, FOX, FOX Deportes, FOX One and INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls).
NTT IndyCar Series Point Standings _ 1, Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing, 237; 2, Kyle Kirkwood, Andretti Global, 210; 3, David Malukas, Team Penske, 185; 4, Christian Lundgaard, Arrow McLaren, 182; 5, Josef Newgarden, Team Penske, 162; 6, Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing, 148; 7, Pato O’Ward, Arrow McLaren, 148; 8, Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 141; 9, Scott McLaughlin, Team Penske, 141; 10, Marcus Armstrong, Meyer Shank Racing, 123;
11, Felix Rosenqvist, Meyer Shank Racing, 116; 12, Marcus Ericsson, Andretti Global, 112; 13, Alexander Rossi, Ed Carpenter Racing, 110; 14, Will Power, Andretti Global, 107; 15, Dennis Hauger, Dale Coyne Racing, 100; 16, Rinus VeeKay, Juncos Hollinger Racing, 94; 17, Kyffin Simpson, Chip Ganassi Racing, 93; 18, Santino Ferrucci, A.J. Foyt Racing, 90; 19, Louis Foster, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 86; 20, Nolan Siegel, Arrow McLaren, 76;
21, Caio Collet, A.J. Foyt Racing, 70; 22, Romain Grosjean, Dale Coyne Racing, 69; 23, Christian Rasmussen, Ed Carpenter Racing, 65; 24, Sting Ray Robb, Juncos Hollinger Racing, 55; 25, Mick Schumacher, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 54.
FOX SPORTS’ 2026 NTT INDYCAR SERIES BROADCAST SCHEDULE/(RACE WINNER)
Note _ All times Eastern
Sunday, March 1 _ Streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., (Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing)
Saturday, March 7 _ Phoenix Raceway, Avondale, Ariz., (Josef Newgarden, Team Penske)
Sunday, March 15 _ Streets of Arlington, Texas, (Kyle Kirkwood, Andretti Global)
Sunday, March 29 _ Barber Motorsports Park, Birmingham, Ala., (Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing)
Sunday, April 19 _ Streets of Long Beach, Calif., (Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing)
Saturday, May 9 _ Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road-Course, (Christian Lundgaard, Arrow McLaren)
Sunday, May 24 _ 110th Indianapolis 500, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Oval, 10 a.m.
Sunday, May 31 _ Streets of Downtown Detroit, 12:30 p.m.
Sunday, June 7 _ World Wide Technology Raceway, Madison, Ill., 9 p.m.
Sunday, June 21 _ Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wis., 2 p.m.
Sunday, July 5 _ Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, Ohio, 12:30 p.m.
Sunday, July 19 _ Nashville Superspeedway, Lebanon, Tenn., TBA
Sunday, Aug. 9 _ Portland (Ore.) International Raceway, 4 p.m.
Sunday, Aug. 16 _ Streets of Markham, Canada, Noon
Sunday, Aug. 23 _ Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C., TBA
Saturday, Aug. 29 _ The Milwaukee Mile Race 1, West Allis, Wis., 2:30 p.m.
Sunday, Aug. 30 _ The Milwaukee Mile Race 2, West Allis, Wis., 1 p.m.
Sunday, Sept. 6 _ WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, Monterey, Calif., 2:30 p.m.
Note _ Dates and times subject to change.
2026 INDYCAR NXT BY FIRESTONE SCHEDULE/(RACE-WINNER)
Sunday, March 1 _ Streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., (Nikita Johnson, Cape Motorsports Powered by ECR)
Sunday, March 15 _ Streets of Arlington, Texas, (Max Taylor, Andretti Global)
Saturday, March 28 _ Barber Motorsports Park, Birmingham, Ala., (Nikita Johnson, Cape Motorsports Powered by ECR)
Sunday, March 29 _ Barber Motorsports Park, Birmingham, Ala., (Alessandro de Tullio, A.J. Foyt Racing)
Friday, May 8 _ Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road-Course Race 1 (Enzo Fittipaldi, HMD Motorsports)
Saturday, May 9 _ Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road-Course Race 2 (Tymek Kucharczyk, HMD Motorsports)
Sunday, May 31 _ Streets of Downtown Detroit
Sunday, June 7 _ World Wide Technology Raceway, Madison, Ill.
Saturday, June 20 _ Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wis., Race 1
Sunday, June 21 _ Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wis., Race 2
Saturday, July 4 _ Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, Ohio, Race 1
Sunday, July 5 _ Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, Ohio, Race 2
Sunday, July 19 _ Nashville Superspeedway, Lebanon, Tenn.
Sunday, Aug. 9 _ Portland (Ore.) International Raceway
Sunday, Aug. 30 _ The Milwaukee Mile, West Allis, Wis.
Saturday, Sept. 5 _ Weather Tech Raceway Laguna Seca, Monterey, Calif., Race 1
Sunday, Sept. 6 _ Weather Tech Raceway Laguna Seca, Monterey, Calif., Race 2
