Indianapolis 500: Alexander Rossi and Pato O'Ward involved in huge practice crash

Two of the top qualifiers for Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 were involved in a massive crash during practice on Monday.

Alexander Rossi’s car snapped loose in Turn 2 and crashed heavily into the outside wall. The impact lifted Rossi’s wheels off the ground before Pato O’Ward spun into Rossi’s wrecking car. Romain Grosjean was also involved in the crash.

All three drivers were able to walk away from their cars and O’Ward and Grosjean were quickly cleared after heading to the infield medical center. Approximately an hour after the crash, IndyCar said that Rossi was awake and alert and still being evaluated.

Rossi qualified third for the Indianapolis 500 just a day earlier and is set to start on the front row behind pole-sitter Alex Palou. O’Ward qualified on the second row in sixth.

“Just wrong place, wrong time, just got collected there,” O’Ward said on Fox Sports 1 after he was cleared from the care center.

The crash happened as the field rushed to get as many practice laps in as they could before an approaching line of thunderstorms. The two-hour practice began at 1 p.m. ET and was unlikely to be completed because of the rain. Monday’s practice session was the penultimate practice ahead of the traditional Carb Day practice on Friday.

Rossi and O’Ward were two of the favorites to win the Indianapolis 500 before the crash. Now, their teams have massive repairs ahead if they are able to salvage the damaged cars, though Rossi’s Ed Carpenter Racing didn’t seem to waste much time going to a backup. The Fox practice coverage showed his team wheeling a backup car out just minutes after the crash happened.

If either of the three drivers have to use backup cars, they’ll be allowed to keep their starting spots per IndyCar rules and have the opportunity to get used to the new cars — or their repaired primary cars — during practice on Friday.