24-05-2025
- Automotive
- Indianapolis Star
'It's not fun': What's the toughest injury Indy 500 drivers have raced through?
INDIANAPOLIS — Rinus Veekay won the 2021 IndyCar Grand Prix, his only victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with a broken finger.
Veekay will start on the final row Sunday and believes a mid-table finish is a realistic goal. However, history at the speedway shows the Dutchman a possible path to an Indianapolis 500 victory.
'I might need to have somebody snap it again for me,' Veekay said Thursday at Indy 500 media day.
Racing with an injury isn't uncommon for drivers. Takuma Sato told IndyStar Thursday that he will race the Indy 500 with a fractured rib. A crash on Day 2 of the Indy 500 open test in late April caused Sato's injury. The two-time Indy 500 champion said he is taking injections everyday before he gets in the car.
'Slowly but surely, I'm getting better,' Sato said. 'I'll be fine on race day. There is no pain because of the injections.'
When asked what's the toughest injury he's raced with, Alex Palou revealed that he broke his collarbone roughly eight years ago and returned to the track three days after receiving surgery.
'It's not fun, but adrenaline helps you go through it,' Palou said.
Eight days before the 2021 Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio, Veekay broke his collarbone. Unlike Palou, though, Veekay's injury came after he fell off a bike.
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'I barely moved my shoulder and arm for a week and everything just started cramping (on race day). It was pretty hard and wasn't ideal,' Veekay said.
As he continued to reflect, Veekay was pleased with the race.
'We finished the race 16th. That was decent,' he said.
Marco Andretti's performance in the 2022 Superstar Racing Experience season finale was better than decent. The 20-year IndyCar veteran broke his wrist due to an in-race crash but recovered, passing three drivers in 10 laps to secure ninth place and just enough points to win the SRX title.
'It's crazy, you can go that extra gear and it doesn't matter what's in my way,' Andretti told IndyStar.
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Andretti echoed Palou and said adrenaline 'plays a big part' in persisting through the pain. As he stood on the third floor of the media building at IMS on Thursday, Andretti started grimacing as he recalled the pain he felt in his wrist post-race.
