Opening practice for this weekend’s IndyCar Series doubleheader at The Milwaukee Mile ended in heavy damage for two drivers after championship contender Kyle Kirkwood and last year’s Milwaukee winner Christian Rasmussen crashed late in the session.
The collision occurred during the final 30 minutes of the weekend’s sole 90-minute practice. Kirkwood made a pass to the inside of Rasmussen exiting Turn 2, but the two came together as they entered Turn 3. The contact sent Kirkwood’s #27 Andretti Global Honda into a spin back into Rasmussen, launching both cars into the outside wall. Rasmussen’s #21 ECR Chevrolet caught slight air as its right-front tire climbed over Kirkwood’s left sidepod and brushed past the back portion of the aeroscreen.
Kirkwood, a 27-year-old Florida native, comes into the weekend second in the championship standings, trailing leader Alex Palou by 91 points with three races remaining. Fresh off a victory last weekend in Washington, D.C., Kirkwood was running fifth overall at the time of the incident.
“It wasn’t actually meant to be aggressive,” Kirkwood said. “Yeah, I mean I was just getting into some race running there. The Sam’s Club Honda was super fast. I just don’t know. He started to turn in really early and I don’t know if his spotter didn’t tell him that I was still there on the inside or if he expected me to turn down early or what? But he just started his turn-in too early. It’s unfortunate. That’s not the thing you want to end practice like.
“Quite honestly, I want to dig into it more really understand it, but from from my point of view, he just turned in early, didn’t expect me to be running just kind of a normal line into there. He just tried to turn and expect me to go narrow or something. So, unfortunate circumstances.”
When asked by Fox Sports if words were exchanged between the pair during their shared ride back to the IndyCar Medical Center, Kirkwood declined to elaborate: “I won’t throw him under the bus like that.”
The 26-year-old Rasmussen was running seventh when the accident happened. The venue holds strong memories for Rasmussen, who stormed to his only career IndyCar victory to date on the 1-mile oval last year.
“To me it felt like he just kind of never turned in,” Rasmussen said. “I was on the outside and didn’t feel like I turned in early, but I think his rear tire probably touched mine. I’m looking at it now. Yeah, I don’t know. I didn’t feel like I could have been much higher than I was. I don’t know I need to look at it a little bit more. It’s a little bit of a weird one because to me just seemed like he just never really turned in. But just really really unfortunate because I think we had a really fast race car and Not obviously how we want to end our (session).”
The impact left significant damage on Rasmussen’s machine, forcing the Ed Carpenter Racing crew to unload a backup car near the end of the session.
When the checkered flag flew, Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden led the session with a top speed of 159.430 mph. Despite ending his session in the wall, Kirkwood’s earlier pace kept him eighth on the final timing sheets, while Rasmussen dropped to 13th.
