INDIANAPOLIS — Just when it seemed like the Indianapolis 500 might go all the way to the end without a caution flag, the cautions started coming — and a big wreck took out two contenders.
Townsend Bell made a bold move on a late restart and may have made contact with Ed Carpenter, causing Carpenter to collide with James Hinchcliffe and hit the wall hard. It was the end of the day for Carpenter and Hinchcliffe, but Bell was able to continue.
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Carpenter appeared to be furious as he exited his car. Both he and Hinchcliffe, who sustained a concussion in a wreck two weeks ago, were examined and released from the infield care center.
Carpenter seemed to blame the incident more on Hinchcliffe trying to pass him on the inside than on Bell trying to pass him on the outside.
"Townsend and I would have been fine," Carpenter said in a television interview.
Asked what the ride was like with Hinchcliffe back to the infield care center, Carpenter said, "It's a good thing he already had a concussion."
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Hinchcliffe, who was hit in the face with flying debris at the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis on May 10 and was taken to the hospital with a concussion, was only cleared to return to racing activities a little more than a week ago.
Hinchcliffe agreed that Carpenter was not to blame.
"I honestly don't think Townsend (Bell) knew we were three-wide," Hincliffe said. "I was the last guy so I gotta take my portion of the blame. I feel bad for Ed. ... It's 100 percent not Ed's fault."
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Not long after Charlie Kimball's spin brought out the first caution of the race, Scott Dixon spun out and hit the wall hard on lap 168.
Dixon, the 2008 Indy 500 winner, spun in Turn 4. The left side of his car slammed the outside wall, mangling his front suspension before his car came to rest near the inside wall of the frontstretch.
All four Chip Ganassi Racing cars have had issues in this year's race. Last year's winner, Tony Kanaan, had mechanical issues with his car and Ryan Briscoe had to make an unscheduled early stop.
The rear end of Kimball's car slid out on lap 150 and his left-front tire grazed the wall, causing his car to slide to a stop on the infield. Kimball appeared to be OK.
The subsequent caution flag was the first of the race. It was the longest the Indianapolis 500 had gone without a caution since the speedway began keeping official records of cautions in 1976.
Without any cautions to slow down the field, the race leader's average speed at the halfway mark was a record 211.871 mph — significantly exceeding the previous 100-lap record of 177.687 mph, set in last year's race.
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