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Kyle Larson boarded a helicopter to begin making his way to North Carolina for the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday afternoon after a crash in lap 92 of the Indianapolis 600 that took out two other drivers.
Replay of Kyle Larson’s crash #INDY500 pic.twitter.com/S5KBFgSEJr
— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) May 25, 2025
The NASCAR driver wiggled in Turn 2, got loose and triggered a three-car crash that also took out Kyffin Simpson and Sting Ray Robb.
“Just bummed out,” Larson said. “Try to get over this quickly and get on to Charlotte and just forget about it.”
Larson needed to leave Indianapolis Motor Speedway by 4 p.m. to make it to Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina, where the Coca-Cola 600 is his priority.
Only one driver has ever completed the so-called “double,” racing in both the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 in the same day. That was Tony Stewart in 2001. Larson’s bid failed last year because a rain delay in Indianapolis made him miss the Coca-Cola 600.
Ryan Hunter-Reay was the leader at the halfway point of the Indianapolis 500 as he looked for a second victory in “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”
Hunter-Reay, in a one-off entry for DRR-Cusick Motorsports, won the Indy 500 in 2014 as a driver for Andretti Global. Him leading Sunday with 100 laps remaining was fitting for a race that was first briefly delayed by rain and then hit with a rash of weird incidents.
Scott McLaughlin crashed on the warm-up lap while swerving to get heat in his tires. Scott Dixon had a brake fire before the race went green and then Marco Andretti crashed on the fourth lap.
It was reminiscent of the 1992 Indianapolis 500, when pole-sitter Roberto Guerrero spun out and crashed while also trying to warm up his tires during the parade laps.
“I really have no idea what happened,” a heartbroken McLaughlin said. “I can’t believe we’re out of the race. I had so much hope. It’s the worst moment of my life.”
The bizarre only continued as Alexander Rossi went to pit road with smoke coming from the back of his car, only for it to erupt into flames and his fueler caught fire. Rossi angrily flung his gloves over the pit road wall as he fled from the flames.
Rinus VeeKay lost his brakes and crashed on pit road and then Robert Shwartzman, the first rookie to start from the pole since 1983, lost control entering his pit stall and hit several of his Prema Racing crew members.
“As soon as I touched my brakes, the whole front just locked and I ran into my guys,” Shwartzman said. “It was really scary because when I braked, I was just a passenger.”
Shwartzman, a dual national of Israel and Russia and first rookie to lead the field to green since 1983, was making his oval debut. The 25-year-old drives under the Israel flag and is the first Israeli in the field.
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In 2023 an employee from Andretti UK called Mark Haskins, called me at my home in Carmel to tell me that “if I wanted to have business in Indiana I needed to sponsor Andretti”.
Yup.
The British Andretti rep continued to share that “since Formula One is expensive and the State of Indiana cannot sponsor a Fomula One team, the IEDC came up with an INNOVATIVE way to pay for Andretti Formula One, by using sustainability grants via the Battery Innovation Center” and he added “BECAUSE SUSTAINABILITY GRANTS ARE UNLIMITED IN INDIANA”.
Andretti and the IEDC Battery Innovation Center had been selling our economy to benefit themsleves.
Why does the IEDC awards to the Battery Innovation Center, who awards Andretti Petroleum…and the Battery Innovation Center the Hydrogen of Indiana (I know, it’s confusing, because it’s also called greenwashing.)
Indiana Hydrogen Ecosystem Initiative
PROJECT SUMMARY:
Over the last two years ESN has completed an extensive Indiana Hydrogen Ecosystem Report that details the economic, environmental, and innovation benefits of building out a hydrogen economy in Indiana. Hydrogen economy strategies and policies are becoming common place across the globe including in a number of US states (TX, OK, CA, etc.). Indiana has an opportunity to help shape and participate in this new energy marketplace drawing on some competitive advantages that exist in the state including a robust trucking and logistics industry and interstate highway network, large number of renewable energy developments (wind and solar) for green hydrogen production, access to an interstate ammonia pipeline, and a number of industrial use cases for hydrogen. Over the next two years ESN will lead the formation and begin the implementation of a hydrogen ecosystem pilot project
that will move Indiana into a position of strategic leadership in demonstrating and validating this high growth global market opportunity.
The pilot project will focus on the following objectives:
• Recruit and secure commitment from companies that want to part of an Indiana
Hydrogen Ecosystem program with the goal of developing a commercial scale green
hydrogen production facility (goal of ~50 MW electrolyzer co-located with a solar or wind
farm)
• Recruit and secure commitment from companies to develop small green ammonia plant
on site (hydrogen to anhydrous ammonia)
Hydrogen corridor with H2 fueling station sites located along a major route in Indiana.
Indiana Economic Development Corporation
21st Century Research & Technology Fund • Partnership with H2 fuel cell truck fleet pilots leveraging the Hydrogen corridor
• Identify what long term regulatory and policy tools are needed to support further
expansion of Indiana hydrogen marketplace
• Coordinate pursuit of federal funding through DOE Hydrogen Hub program in partnership
with IEDC, industry, and academia.
• Support Purdue research and analysis around the use of green hydrogen for industrial
thermal needs, aviation fuels, and to green fertilizer to reduce CO2 footprint of ethanol.
Proposed Partners
Green Hydrogen Production Site: Cf Industries, Duke Energy, Koch Nitrogen, NuStar Pipeline, Avina,
Hoosier Solar, Cummins, Itochu, BIC, Praxair
I-69 Hydrogen Corridor: Itochu, Toyota, Cummins, Avina, Andretti Group, BIC
https://secure.in.gov/apps/iedc/transparencyportal/viewtaxgrantloancontract/63d18e9c65b6ec11983e001dd804cef0