INDIANAPOLIS – A photo opportunity for Rahal Letterman Lanigan caused the first hiccup in preparations for the Indianapolis 500 when Colton Herta and Scott McLaughlin nearly crashed Thursday trying to avoid the on-track stunt.
The track opened as scheduled for practice and defending race winner Takuma Sato slowed alongside Indy 500 teammates Graham Rahal and Santino Ferrucci for a three-wide photo opportunity on Indy's frontstretch.
McLaughlin saw the three RLL cars had slowed to a crawl ahead of him and adjusted his speed accordingly as he drove through the fourth turn.
But Herta was completely unaware and had to quickly dive inside of McLaughlin alongside the wall to avoid a full collision. Both Herta and McLaughlin immediately