Five Injured by Car’s Flying Debris

INDIANAPOLIS — Five spectators suffered minor injuries when a piece of Tomas Scheckter’s car flew into the grandstand on the front straightaway during the Indianapolis 500.

Scheckter’s car spun out in Turn 4 on Lap 66 and then hit the retaining wall that protects the pit road.

Jaques Lazier then drove over a piece of the debris, which appeared to be part of Scheckter’s wing. The debris was sent flying into the grandstand.

All of the injuries were “minor bruises or abrasions” and all five fans were checked and released, according to Indianapolis Motor Speedway officials.

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Veteran driver Eddie Cheever Jr. said Sunday’s race was the hottest since he ran his first Indy 500 in 1990.

In fact it’s been longer than that, according to the National Weather Service. The 90th Indy 500 was the hottest in nearly 30 years -- and seemed even hotter to the drivers and thousands of sunburned fans.

After boxer Sugar Ray Leonard waved the green flag to start the race, the temperature reached 89 degrees, the highest at the race since it hit 90 in 1978, officials said. The track temperature reached 126 degrees.

More than 200 people were treated for heat-related ailments during the race.

The hottest race on record was in 1937, when the high was 92 degrees.

Cheever, the 1998 Indy 500 champion who again drove the race at age 48, finished 13th.

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Helio Castroneves, a two-time Indy 500 winner and Sam Hornish Jr.’s teammate, still leads the Indy Racing League points race despite failing to finish the 500 for the first time in his career.

The Brazilian collided with another former winner, Buddy Rice, on Lap 110.

Neither was hurt, but both cars were knocked out.

Castroneves has 156 points after four IRL races this year, followed by Hornish with 144 and Dan Wheldon with 139.

Castroneves had previously completed five 500s. His string of consecutive laps ended at 1,089; the record is 1,351 by three-time winner Wilbur Shaw.

The IRL’s next race is June 4 at Watkins Glen, N.Y.

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It was a long day for Torrance native P.J. Jones, son of 1963 Indy 500 winner Parnelli Jones.

P.J. started 32nd in his Curb Records car and quickly was lapped by the leaders.

“We were so loose from the beginning,” he said. “We had to come in and make a couple of pit stops. It was either do that or wreck.”

But he finished 19th, thanks to attrition in the field.

Roger Yasukawa of Los Angeles finished 16th for Playa Del Racing after moving up from the 28th starting spot.

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Indy trivia:

* Hornish led only 19 laps in the 500, the fewest by a winner since 1995, when Jacques Villeneuve led 15 laps. Defending winner Wheldon led the most laps Sunday, 148.

* This is the sixth time that a Roger Penske car has won the race from the pole.

* When Marco Andretti passed his father, Michael, for the lead on Lap 198, it was the first time that a father-son combination had swapped the lead since 1992. That year, Mario Andretti passed Michael and, on the next lap, Michael reclaimed the lead from his dad.