Armstrong “Ready” and Cleared to Return for Indy 500 Qualifying After Practice Crash

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief

Marcus Armstrong has been cleared to return to the cockpit for qualifying for the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500 by the IndyCar medical team after a practice crash Saturday morning.

The 24-year-old Kiwi suffered a hard crash in the No. 66 Meyer Shank Racing Honda during the group running of the session and needed assistance from the AMR Safety Team, which placed him on a stretcher – while awake and alert and gave a thumbs up to the fans – and placed in the ambulance before being sent to the Infield Care Center. From there, he was released but not cleared as he was placed in concussion protocol. With his status improving, he was cleared to return and make a qualifying attempt.

“Yeah, we did x-rays and concussion tests at the AMR facility and it seems that I’m okay,” Armstrong told INDYCAR Radio.

“I’m ready to go for it. Honestly, it’s one of those situations where, obviously, it’s a big impact. It’s fast and there’s a sudden hit, but it takes you a minute to realize are you okay. I think a lot of the hesitation from them was because I took some time to respond to the people that were around me initially, because they were pretty much on top of me as soon as I stopped. But I actually wanted to see for myself, ‘Am I alright?’ So, it probably took me a little while to respond to everyone, but I was fine. And I’m fine now. I’m ready to give it another go.”

So good to see a wave and a thumbs-up from Marcus Armstrong. #Indy500 pic.twitter.com/l0XTSqZPqB

— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) May 17, 2025

When he does get an opportunity to go out, it will be in a backup car as Meyer Shank Racing were not able to salvage the primary machine. The team’s backup car is its road and street challenger.

“I’m so grateful that the Meyer Shank Racing crew is working so tirelessly to get it done,” Armstrong said. “They really do deserve something special, so I’m going to do my best and they’re going to do theirs.”

Armstrong was the first incident on the day, with Andretti Global’s Colton Herta also going to a backup car after an airborne crash during his qualifying attempt.