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Serious injuries Indy 500 drivers have driven through, Takuma Sato Ribs

Serious injuries Indy 500 drivers have driven through, Takuma Sato Ribs

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Indianapolis – Rinus Veekay won the Indycar Grand Prix 2021, its only win on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with a broken finger.

Veekay will start in the last row on Sunday and believes that a midfield is a realistic goal. However, the story on Speedway shows the Dutch a possible way to win in Indianapolis 500.

“Maybe I have to grab someone again,” said Veekay on Thursday at the Indy 500 Media Day.

The race with an injury is not unusual for the driver. Takuma Sato said Indystar on Thursday that he would drive the Indy 500 with a broken rib. A crash on the second day of the Indy 500 Open test at the end of April caused Satos injury. The two-time Indy 500 champion said that he took injections every day before climbing into the car.

“I'm slowly but surely getting better,” said Sato. “I'm fine on race day. Due to the injections, there is no pain.”

When Alex Palou was asked what the most difficult injury he drove with, he revealed that he broke his collarbone about eight years ago and returned to the route three days after the operation.

“It's no fun, but adrenaline helps you to go through it,” said Palou.

Eight days before 2021 Indy 200 in mid-ohio, Veekay broke his collarbone. In contrast to Palou, Veekay's injury came after falling off the bike.

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“I hardly moved shoulder and arm for a week and everything just started (on race day). It was pretty difficult and wasn't ideal,” said Veekay.

When he further considered, Veekay was satisfied with the race.

“We finished the race on the 16th. That was decent,” he said.

Marco Andretti's performance in the season finale of the Superstar Racing Experience 2022 was better than decent. The 20-year-old Indycar veteran broke his wrist because of a crash, but recovered and drove three drivers in 10 rounds to secure ninth place, and just enough points to win the SRX title.

“It's crazy, you can go this additional equipment and it doesn't matter what stands in the way,” said Andretti to Indystar.

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Andretti repeated Palou and said that adrenaline plays “a major role” to hold out the pain. When he stood on the third floor of the media building on Thursday, Andretti began to grim when he remembered the pain he felt in his wrist after the race.

“Immediately after the injury, it is quite bad,” said Andretti.

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