Legge, Wilson suffer first major crash of Indy 500 practice

The shunt occurred with 50 minutes of the two-hour practice session remaining, when Legge (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing) and Wilson (Dreyer & Reinbold) made contact at Turn 1, just after Santino Ferrucci (AJ Foyt Racing) had passed Devlin DeFrancesco’s Andretti Autosport entry on the front stretch.

The cars appeared to slow as a result of that passing move, causing a concertina effect, and Legge’s left-front wheel ran into Wilson's right-rear corner as he checked up.

The contact caused both cars to spin before they hit the wall, with Legge hitting side-on as Wilson’s went nose-first into the SAFER barrier.

Legge’s car, which suffered severe right-side damage, briefly got airborne before landing on its belly and impacting the wall again at Turn 2.

Legge climbed out of her car, but Wilson required assistance with a back brace being called for.

The AMR safety crew took 10 minutes to extract Wilson from his car, and although he was stretchered to the ambulance he raised his thumb to the crowd.

“He’s doing well,” said Dr Julia Vaizer, IndyCar’s director, medical services told NBC Peacock.

“He’s being transported to a local hospital for advanced imaging and further evaluation but he’s in good spirits.”

Explaining the incident, Legge said: “The cars in front were all checking up, I lifted as much as I could and downshifted, hit the brakes but it wasn’t enough as they were checking up.

Stefan Wilson, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Chevrolet, crash

Photo by: Phillip Abbott / Motorsport Images

“I got into the back of Stefan and we both ended up in the wall.

“It’s another blow to the team after yesterday, those guys don’t deserve it, it’s not right.”

IMSA regular Legge, making her first Indy 500 appearance since 2013, qualified 30th as the fastest of the RLL quartet while Wilson was 25th in qualifying.

RLL driver Jack Harvey made it into the field in 33rd position but dramatically bumped team-mate Graham Rahal out in the process.