Saturday went from bad to worse very quickly for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Shortly after their three cars qualified in the bottom four of the 27-car field, it got ugly. Jack Harvey crashed during the final practice session, and his No. 45 Honda made heavy contact with the wall. The tub was cracked and the car destroyed, forcing the team to build a new chassis.
IndyCar allowed the crew to stay until 12:30 AM to work on the car. After working feverishly, they soon found out that Harvey was not going to be medically cleared in time for the race.
Per IndyCar protocol, all drivers wear accelerometers that measure G-forces exhibited during an incident. These get evaluated, fully, after each incident, and if the result of the G-forces surpasses the minimum threshold, drivers must be re-evaluated prior to returning to competition. Following the protocol, Harvey was re-evaluated Sunday morning and was not cleared to race.
The team turned to a familiar face to fill in for the Englishman. Santino Ferrucci drove in five races last season for the team, and was already at the track. About 90 minutes before the green flag, Ferrucci and the team were given a handful of laps on the track to get up to speed and to make sure the new chassis would be good to go.
“I’m just happy that Jack is okay,” Ferrucci said. “Happy that I’m here, and just going to represent for Hy-Vee and try and have a good day for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.”
Ferrucci did just that, rocketing to the front of the field in the early stages of the race. He was nearly collected in an accident right in front of him, just narrowly avoiding the incident and continuing in the race. He continued his march through the field and ultimately ended up with a 9th place finish for the team.
“Considering I was going to be racing my couch today, I am pretty happy to be racing for RLL and the Hy-Vee Honda,” Ferrucci said. “I had six laps of warmup this morning in a seat that wasn’t mine – I…
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