Josef Newgarden leads abbreviated Indy 500 practice marred by storms, major wreck

Following a full day of qualifying, Monday was race practice for the 33 drivers and teams competing in the 110th running of the Indianapolis 500.

They had two hours of practice from 1-3pm EST, but they only managed to get about half of that in before severe weather arrived.

A caution for lightning in the area was displayed with around 55 minutes left in the practice, and all cars were forced into the pits. IndyCar officials ended the session soon after, and ordered teams to clear the pit lane as the rain finally arrived.

In the 65 minutes of running they did get, a pair of 2x Indy 500 winners led the speed charts.

Team Penske's Josef Newgarden was fastest with a 226.198mph lap, followed by RLL Racing's Takuma Sato at 225.723, and the Dale Coyne Racing rookie of Dennis Hauger at 224.554mph.

Ryan Hunter-Reay, Scott Dixon, Jack Harvey, Pato O'Ward, Caio Collet, and Christian Rasmussen filled out the rest of the top ten speeds.

All 33 cars made it out onto the track, but pole-sitter Alex Palou was delayed as all of the media obligations and photo shoots didn't leave the team much time to get the No. 10 car back into race trim.

No driver ran more laps than Sting Ray Robb, who completed 46 laps around the 2.5-mile speedway.

The next time cars will be on track will be for Carb Day this Friday, and that will be the final practice session before the green flag flies for the 2026 Indy 500.

Multi-car crash

Another look at the incident that involved Alexander Rossi, Pato O'Ward and Romain Grosjean. pic.twitter.com/Qnfik2GewK

— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) May 18, 2026

Unfortunately, the short practice also featured the first incident of the month for the Indy 500 competitors.

Alexander Rossi, who qualified second for this year's Indy 500, spun at the exit of Turn 2 and impacted the wall. The went up on its side before sitting back down, and that's when Pato O'Ward spun and slammed into the side of him. Both cars sustained significant damage.

Romain Grosjean also spun and hit the outside wall while trying to avoid the incident, turning it into a three-car crash. Several others narrowly avoided being collected as well.

O'Ward and Grosjean were quickly checked and released from the infield care center, while Rossi is awake and alert, but has been been transported to a local hospital for further evaluation.

***LATEST UPDATE: Rossi suffered minor injuries to a finger on his left hand, as well as his right ankle, but he still intends to compete in this weekend's Indy 500.

Monday Indy 500 practice results

cla	#	driver	team	laps	time	gap	int	mph
1	2	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	34	39.7882			226.198
2	75	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	35	39.8718	0.0836	0.0836	225.723
3	19	Dennis Hauger	Dale Coyne Racing	34	40.0794	0.2912	0.2076	224.554
4	31	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Arrow McLaren	32	40.1042	0.3160	0.0248	224.415
5	28	Marcus Ericsson	Andretti Global	39	40.1112	0.3230	0.0070	224.376
6	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	26	40.1156	0.3274	0.0044	224.352
7	24	Jack Harvey	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	39	40.1272	0.3390	0.0116	224.287
8	5	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren	19	40.1644	0.3762	0.0372	224.079
9	4	Caio Collet	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	41	40.1805	0.3923	0.0161	223.989
10	21	Christian Rasmussen	Ed Carpenter Racing	40	40.2306	0.4424	0.0501	223.710
11	14	Santino Ferrucci	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	34	40.2442	0.4560	0.0136	223.635
12	12	David Malukas	Team Penske	35	40.2833	0.4951	0.0391	223.418
13	8	Kyffin Simpson	Chip Ganassi Racing	35	40.3114	0.5232	0.0281	223.262
14	18	Romain Grosjean	Dale Coyne Racing	20	40.3166	0.5284	0.0052	223.233
15	27	Kyle Kirkwood	Andretti Global	21	40.3618	0.5736	0.0452	222.983
16	77	Ray Robb Sting	Juncos Hollinger Racing	47	40.3681	0.5799	0.0063	222.948
17	10	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	19	40.3922	0.6040	0.0241	222.815
18	06	Helio Castroneves	Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian	38	40.4063	0.6181	0.0141	222.738
19	26	Will Power	Andretti Global	35	40.4311	0.6429	0.0248	222.601
20	66	Marcus Armstrong	Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian	30	40.5122	0.7240	0.0811	222.155
21	60	Felix Rosenqvist	Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian	35	40.5160	0.7278	0.0038	222.134
22	11	Katherine Legge	HMD Motorsports with A.J. Foyt Racing	35	40.5246	0.7364	0.0086	222.087
23	76	Rinus VeeKay	Juncos Hollinger Racing	42	40.5287	0.7405	0.0041	222.065
24	3	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	33	40.5384	0.7502	0.0097	222.012
25	45	Louis Foster	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	28	40.5713	0.7831	0.0329	221.832
26	20	Alexander Rossi	Ed Carpenter Racing	23	40.6177	0.8295	0.0464	221.578
27	6	Nolan Siegel	Arrow McLaren	32	40.6577	0.8695	0.0400	221.360
28	7	Christian Lundgaard	Arrow McLaren	32	40.6630	0.8748	0.0053	221.331
29	33	Ed Carpenter	Ed Carpenter Racing	23	40.7083	0.9201	0.0453	221.085
30	47	Mick Schumacher	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	37	40.8583	1.0701	0.1500	220.273
31	23	Conor Daly	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	24	40.9923	1.2041	0.1340	219.553
32	51	Jacob Abel	Abel Motorsports	25	41.0156	1.2274	0.0233	219.429
33	15	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	31	41.2103	1.4221	0.1947	218.392