Malukas Fastest; O’Ward and Ericsson Crash in Wet Second Practice at Barber

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – David Malukas posted the fastest time in Saturday’s second practice at Barber Motorsports Park, but Mother Nature threw a wrench into the works and caused a bit of chaos late in the session.

The practice session began on a drying track following overnight and early morning rain storms, with teams deliberating on whether to go out on the Firestone rain tires or take a chance on the slicks.

Malukas jumped to the top of the board with his lap of one minute, 8.166 seconds ahead of Alex Palou and Christian Lundgaard.

But with just under 20 minutes remaining in the session, the chaos started.

Coming off the final corner onto the front straight, Pato O’Ward, who had just bolted on a new set of Firestone slicks, went off track and skidding through the gravel trap straight into the foam barrier lining the wall.

Though the impact originally looked to have caused more significant damage to his No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, O’Ward was able to be towed out by the AMR Safety Team and limped his car back to pit road with seemingly only the front wing of the machine damaged.

PATO IN THE BARRIER 🫣

Losing control in Turn 17, the No. 5 car eventually drives away to pit lane. pic.twitter.com/sE3qerRrx1

— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) May 3, 2025

“I lost the rear and once I got off into the grass, you’re pretty much a passenger. It’s really wet,” said O’Ward.

“I don’t know if I touched maybe some paint opening the radius into the corner, maybe that’s why I lost the rear. Or maybe I just lost it. I don’t know. I need to see the replay. Yeah, as soon as I touched the grass, you’re pretty much a passenger.

“I say the damage isn’t as bad as I thought. The steering column is kind of eh, so we didn’t want to risk it with the nature of being such high speed corners here.”

Shortly after the session went back green following the O’Ward crash, the skies opened up, setting off a chain of events that would see Friday’s fastest driver having an incident that could have been much worse.

Charging around the course as it was steadily getting wetter, Ericsson went off track in the high-speed Turn 11/12 section and as his car transitioned from the gravel trap to the rain-soaked grass, the side of his No. 28 Andretti Global Honda dug in and sent the side of his car up into the air momentarily before it settled back down with a thud and he continued his skid all the way into the tire barrier.

Ericsson tried to pull away himself, but was stuck in the grass and once the AMR Safety Team arrived on scene, the damage to his car was much more significant than what O’Ward had sustained and he had to be towed back to pit road.

The Swede would be checked and released from the INDYCAR Medical Unit, but his team will have to scramble to get ready for qualifying, which is scheduled for 2:30 pm ET on FOX Sports 1.

No grip for @Ericsson_Marcus in the high-speed corner 😳

Rain is coming down at the @BarberMotorPark circuit 🌧️

📺: #INDYBHM practice on FS1 pic.twitter.com/k5UXFQSNf8

— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) May 3, 2025

With 10 minutes still on the board following the Ericsson crash and the rain still falling, teams took the opportunity to get some laps out on the track under wet conditions with inclement weather expected during qualifying. Of those that elected to go back out, Alex Palou was the fastest.