When Sebastien Bourdais suffered his awful-looking 228mph accident during qualifying for the 2017 Indy 500, he not only broke his pelvis and left hip, he also blew apart his and Dale Coyne Racing’s best chance of Indy 500 glory. Seb was on the third lap of his quali run, and his first two were the fastest we’d seen that day. There’s little doubt he could have carried that pace through to the Fast Nine and at least landed a spot on the front row.
We know, too, that Dale Coyne’s team had a damn good race setup that year. Rookie teammate Ed Jones finished third the following Sunday, barely half a second behind the winner, despite damage to the nose of the car both costing him downforce and adding drag. Coyne could only shrug and wonder what might have been.
