Indianapolis 500 Tells Monaco To Hold Its Beer, Begins With Its Own First Lap Chaos

I don't know what is going on but for some reason, first laps are hard today. They're always hard given how bunched up the field is, but first the Monaco Grand Prix, and now the Indianapolis 500 have seen multiple cars retire after just a couple of corners.

The NASCAR Cup Series drivers need to tip-toe on the opening lap of the Coca-Cola 600 later Sunday.

The Indy 500 got underway four hours late thanks to a weather delay, and while everyone was fired up to finally see some racing, it didn't take long before we had to press pause yet again.

Going through Turn 1 rookie Tom Blomqvist — who is a top-notch sports car driver making his Indy 500 debut — dunked a wheel onto the rumble strips on the inside of Turn 1.

If you've watched Indy before, you've probably seen this happen. What you don't normally see is four other cars get collected because of it on the opening lap.

Blomqvist collected Marcus Ericcson who was starting at the rear because he did the same exact thing in Turn 4 during practice and had to switch to a backup car.

Also involved was Rahal Letterman Lannigan Racing's Pietro Fittipaldi.

Blomqvist is a great driver, and that little mistake has been made by some big names over the years. We already mentioned that Ericsson (who won at Indy in 2022 and finished in P2 last year) did it just the other week, and F1 great Fernando Alonso did it too when he competed at Indy.

Meanwhile, Marcus Armstong and Katherine Legge both retired from the race with engine issues within the first 23 laps. Both of their cars use Honda engines.

That's a giant bummer for all of those drivers and their teams as well. A lot goes into running at Indy so it really sucks to see it come to an end in the first few laps after everyone sat around for a few hours twiddling their thumbs waiting for rain to stop.

Tough break, but Indy can be a race of attrition and it didn't take long for the field to dwindle to 28 cars.