Indy 500 2022: Dalton Kellett crash heavily damages his car

INDIANAPOLIS -- It took 22 hours of practice and several dozen qualifying runs over the last week, but the Indianapolis Motor Speedway finally delivered its first serious crash in teams' Indianapolis 500 preparation in May. With just over 30 minutes left in Monday's post-qualifying weekend practice, Dalton Kellett lost grip running the outside lane in Turn 1, resulting in a spin that ended with him smacking the left side of his car into the outside wall.

The impact sent both the right-side tires of the A.J. Foyt Racing machine off the ground, though it fell short of taking flight. After Kellett emerged from the car under his own power, he complained of soreness in his left foot from smacking it on the pedal bulkhead upon impact. Doctors at the IMS infield care center took an X-ray. Kellett said everything came back clear, and he was checked, released and cleared to drive again.

"We've got the best medical team in the business here, and the car on the SAFER barrier really did the job for how big a hit it was," Kellett said. "It didn't feel that bad. Thanks to IndyCar and IMS for having a really good safety package here."

'It's not the last lap of the Indy 500'

By the time he spoke with assembled media outside the care center, Kellett said he'd had a couple chances to watch a replay of the incident, which came as he was attempting to make a pass on 500 rookie Romain Grosjean. As Kellett described it, he was running behind the Andretti Autosport No. 29 when he saw Grosjean bobble and lose a little momentum coming out of Turn 4.

As Kellett gained on Grosjean down the front stretch, he made a move for an outside pass. Near the end of pitlane, the cars appeared almost completely side-by-side, and Kellett clearly had the momentum. But as the Foyt driver went deeper toward corner entrance, he realized Grosjean wasn't prepared to lift and give up the position. By the time he lifted himself, he was too high into the corner and lost grip.

"Being the passing car, the onus is kind of on (me), but when I looked at the replay, it did look like I was pretty far alongside, and Romain kept his foot in it. To a certain extent that can be fair, especially if it's the last lap of the 500.

"I don't think in that situation it's clear one way or the other. He could've backed out of it and slotted in, or I could've bailed out earlier. (If it were the race), obviously the focus is to finish, so I'd check out of that a little earlier."

On the Peacock broadcast, Kellett was mildly more biting in his criticism of Grosjean. "It's fair, and at the end of the day, I'm the passing car, but it's also practice," he said. "It's not the last lap of the 500."

Grosjean was also involved in controversial end-of-the-race contact with Graham Rahal over the final laps at Barber last month. With the Andretti driver attempting to pass in Turn 5 on the inside, he and Rahal smacked tires once, and after both bobbled, Grosjean appeared to drive into the side of the No. 15 Honda a second time. Rahal was fuming on pitlane post-race, saying Grosjean had "overstayed his welcome" in the middle of his second IndyCar season and insinuated he was far from the only one with issues with the ex-F1 driver's on-track antics.

In his own defense, Grosjean repeatedly called the contact "a racing incident" and further laid blame at Rahal's teammate Jack Harvey for the bumps they shared in the GMR Grand Prix when Grosjean ultimately ran off-track and spun after similar wheel-to-wheel contact. Outside Rahal, Grosjean said he hadn't been approached by any other drivers in the paddock to either clear the air or discuss simmering frustrations.

More: Grosjean's only heard criticism from Graham Rahal: 'Everyone's got my number'

"It's all behind us. Let's move on," Grosjean said last week. "I'm happy with the way I race. I'm happy with the way I go.

"Everyone's got my number. Everyone knows where my bus is. They can come anytime. If I make a mistake, I will go apologize -- and I will make some, don't worry."

'This shouldn't really set us back'

Over the weekend, Kellett qualified 29th for next Sunday's 500 after a four-lap average run of 228.916 mph. Now, instead of putting the finishing touches on a car both he and the team have sounded really satisfied with in race-trim, president Larry Foyt was off after speaking to the media to check and see if the car's tub was salvagable.

"You don't usually have small hits here. They're always big hits," Foyt said. "The timing of it is certainly better. You never want to have to fix your speedway car because we've gotten them pretty nice by this point as we roll in, but the guys will do a great job, and it'll be just as good as it was."

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Kellett's performance in last year's 500 was his best to date, taking 23rd after starting 30th. As a rookie in 2020, Kellett started 24th, but a mid-race crash mired him to 31st.

"It's obviously unfortunate for the team to have to put our car back together because we've had a good racecar all month, but from a (performance) perspective, this shouldn't really set us back at all. It's just another lesson to learn. You're always learning here at Indy, and these things happen, and you have to learn from them and move on."

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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indy 500 2022: Dalton Kellett crash heavily damages his car at practice