Shortly after the East of the East at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Colton Herta was invested on the track, after a hard accident at the beginning of the full field classification session left his no. 26 Andretti Global Honda upside down and leaning against the wall.
A few hours later, Herta was in the field for the 109th Indianapolis 500.
Hours after a collapse of fear he saw Herta visit the medical center for his evaluation, the Andretti driver returned to the track, pushing himself and No. 26 Honda to the limit. Just before 5:00 pm local time, Herta was doing her four laps around the 2.5 mile oval.
And he did enough to reserve a place in the program:
When time expired at the end of the session, Herta’s career was good enough for P29, just within the top 30.
As James Fuechcliffe pointed out in the Sports Fox cabin, the telemetry data indicated that Herta did not take off the accelerator once those four laps, despite the heavy derivation earlier in the day.
For those who have not seen Herta’s accident, this is how that incident was developed:
Herta is not the only driver who points to a place in the field after a collapse of fear on Saturday. Marcus Armstrong, driver of No. 66 Meyer Shank Racing Honda, suffered a strong accident of his own doors practice on Saturday morning. After an extended period in the center of attention, Armstrong was clear to return to the track:
Armstrong made an attempt to classify, but his average speed of four laps was not good enough to reserve a place in Indianapolis 500. He will have to ensure one of the three final points in the last qualification session on Sunday.
