Injured Alexander Rossi Plans To Race Indy 500: ‘We’ll See Y’all On Sunday’

Alexander Rossi practiced Friday and plans to race Sunday in the Indianapolis 500 after suffering an injury to a small bone in his right ankle in a crash Monday in practice. Speaking on his “Off Track With Hinch & Rossi” podcast with FOX analyst James Hinchcliffe, Rossi had his foot elevated and heavily wrapped. By Thursday, the boot was off and he was walking on crutches. He was cleared Thursday for the two-hour practice session Friday to prepare for the 500-mile race Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He said at his media day news conference that INDYCAR had him complete a number of steps to get cleared. He will race with a brace on his right ankle. “I had to drive in a sim, get in and out of the car in an appropriate amount of time,” Rossi said. “I had to show that I could react to instances quick enough with my right foot in the race car with the pedal and my boot on. “That was done over several increments and durations with all of the stuff that will be on me.” Rossi wore the brace Thursday, a brace that had to be designed to be fire retardant. He said he needed the surgeries to stabilize the middle finger of his left hand and his right ankle in order to race. “There’s no head, shoulder, neck issues, and the only thing that we’re dealing with is a very small bone on the inside of my ankle,” Rossi said on the podcast that was taped in front of a live audience. “This very large club foot will come off [Wednesday], so this all looks very dramatic. But you basically can’t be weight-bearing for this process while they try and control the swelling. “Assuming when they take that off, it’s as expected, then Carb Day. Well, it’s going to be wet, so we’ll see y’all on Sunday.” Both Rossi (who is starting second in the race) and Pato O’Ward (sixth) had to go to backup cars after the brutal crash, where Rossi spun, hit the Turn 2 wall and got his back wheels in the air. O’Ward, trying to slow down to avoid the accident, spun and hit Rossi’s already damaged car. Rossi said he actually was saving fuel at the time and in practice, he wouldn’t maneuver as aggressively in the pack as he would in the race. He said his previous lap was 207 mph — about 15-20 mph slower than a full-bore lap — and this lap was going in a similar fashion. “It’s kind of the lamest way to crash, but we were fuel saving. And the way that the packs work in practice is everyone’s quite nice to each other because you’re trying not to hang anyone out,” Rossi said. “In a race, the cadence and the flow is a lot faster and more aggressive, and so when you’re in practice, you can kind of get these big check-up effects.” The cars are designed for peak performance when going a little faster. “I know it sounds counterintuitive, but there’s a perfect window where the car is working well,” Rossi said. “And if you go above that, you’re obviously going to have problems. And if you go below that, I guess in some situations you also have problems.” Rossi, who also suffered an injured finger, praised the safety of the car. “It was one of those incidents where you’re just blown away repeatedly by the safety of INDYCAR and all of the advancements that they have made, considering some of the forces that went on in the first impact, and then the secondary impact with Pato,” Rossi said. O’Ward indicated he was on the edge at that point. “Man, we’re going so fast, and you know these cars are all on a knife’s edge — at least mine is. And that’s how you’ve got to run it if you want to be competitive,” O’Ward told me and other reporters after the accident Monday. “And when you want to run there in the middle of the pack, these risks can happen. And it was just the wrong place, wrong time, and I’m just glad everybody involved is all right.”