Lundqvist crashes in Thursday morning’s practice for Indy 500

Roughly 90 minutes into the session, the 25-year-old Swedish driver was following the Arrow McLaren duo of Pato O’Ward and Alexander Rossi when the backend of his No. 8 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda snapped midway through the corner and pounded the Turn 2 wall.

The damage left Lundqvist’s car unstable and bouncing toward the inside wall before gathering it back up and coming to a stop along the backstretch of the 2.5-mile superspeedway.

Lundqvist, one of seven rookies entered in the event, was able to walk off under his own power after being carefully assisted out of the car by IndyCar’s AMR Safety Team.

His CGR team-mate Scott Dixon noted that "the lap I came in, I actually got really loose in (Turns) 1 and 2 and I don’t know why, because the balance has been really good. But it’s kind of why I came in. I was like ‘eh, something didn’t feel right there.’ So maybe that caught him out."

However, Lundqvist, who was quickly checked and released from the infield care center, claimed he simply touched the inside curb, which upset the car and sent him up the track.

"I'm alright," said a dejected Lundqvist. "I just want to apologize to the team.

"Obviously, not what we're looking to do. It's a shame. I know that the guy's worked so hard as well to put this car together, so it sucks. It's my mistake.

"I know exactly what I did: I touched the curb in (Turn) 2 and I couldn't hold onto it. Something they talk about often around this place. But it's just a mistake in my part and obviously my team has to pay the price for it, so yeah, it sucks. But I'm alright."

He later added: "I know we're going to bounce back from something like this. Doesn't mean that it doesn't suck in the moment. Obviously, it hurts and especially when it's your mistake, but we'll rebound and I'll learn from it. There's another week or so until the race so we'll bounce back for that."

The 2022 Indy NXT champion, Lundqvist had run 23 laps with a best of 226.261 mph that was enough to sit sixth overall on the leaderboard.