With all opposing races rained out, the Verizon IndyCar Series began the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit presented by Quicken Loans – Dual II with extra sets of eyes on it. Those eyes were treated to a multi-car incident in the race’s opening corner, and an anger-filled comment from one of the series’ biggest names.
A shaky green flag and early three-wide attempt from Carlos Muñoz between Charlie Kimball and James Hinchcliffe led to a crash in the first corner involving Hinchcliffe, Takuma Sato, Max Chilton and Marco Andretti.
Getting the worst of the shunt was Hinchcliffe, who was pushed up into the outside wall, and Chilton, who ran into the back of Hinchcliffe’s No. 5 Arrow Electronics Honda. Both drivers were eliminated from the 70-lap event with heavy damage.
“Carlos (Munoz) was an idiot,” said an upset Hinchcliffe afterward. “He just drives me straight into the wall. Such a bull—-, unnecessary move.”
Trying to avoid the incident above, Sato was sent spinning through the opening turn after contact from Indianapolis 500 champion Alexander Rossi. The majority of the field was able to avoid him, but Andretti collided with Sato from last on the grid. Both machines sustained damage, but the two drivers managed to maneuver both vehicles to the pit lane for required service. They were reached assigned to the tail-end of the grid for pitting early.
Muñoz and Kimball, two of the drivers assigned blame for the incident, each continued on without issue.
The incident continued a bad weekend for Hinchcliffe. One week after leading the field to green for the Indy 500, Hinchcliffe finished 18th in Day 1 of the Dual in Detroit. It appears Day 2 will yield a 22nd-place result.
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