IndyCar's first practice at Thermal was a fiery one, as Prema Racing's No. 83 entry, driven by Robert Shwartzman, caught fire during it. Shwartzman, in reaction, stopped the car and jumped out — while triggering a red flag on the session. As expected, the AMR safety team was on the scene quickly, but Prema needed to make significant repairs overnight due to the extent of the damage.
While an unfortunate scenario, it turns out the fire did not have to be as bad as it was. IndyCar's investigation later found that the approved emergency pull cable, which controls the fire suppression system installed on every car, was out of compliance on the No. 83 car, and failed to activate properly. The team, well-established in Europe, but new to IndyCar, was using an unapproved product in the car.
