Crashes mar Friday IndyCar practice at Milwaukee

Nolan Siegel was the first to spin during Friday’s 90-minute practice session at the Milwaukee Mile. The Arrow McLaren driver completed all of four laps before his No. 6 Chevy met the Turn 2 wall, and while he missed the rest of the session, the repairs were somewhat simple.

The same couldn’t be said for Christian Rasmussen with the No. 21 ECR Chevy or Kyle Kirkwood in the No. 27 Andretti Global Honda as their ridiculous collision required a new car to be built for the Dane by ECR and for Andretti to replace most of the back and right side of the American’s car. Both teams worked late into Friday night to ready both machines ahead of the 10am (local) qualifying session.

“I was just getting into some race running there,” Kirkwood said after the incident where the two made side-by-side contact entering Turn 3. “He started to turn in really early, and I don't know if his spotter didn't tell him that that I was still there on the inside, or if he expected me to turn down early or what. But he just started to turn in too early. That's not the thing you want to end practice. He just tried to like turn in, expect me to go narrow or something. So, unfortunate circumstances.”

Rasmussen placed the blame on Kirkwood.

“To me, it felt like he just kind of never turned in,” he said. “I was on the outside and like didn't feel like I turned in early, but I think his rear tire probably touched mine. I didn't feel like I could have been much higher than I was. Really unfortunate because I think we had a really fast race car, and obviously not how we want to end our day."

Asked to share what he said to Rasmussen in ride back to the paddock, Kirkwood declined to share insights on the conversation. "I won't put him under the bus like that," he said.