Rookie seriously hurt in crash at Indianapolis

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Rookie Paul Dana was seriously injured and two-time Indy Racing League champion Sam Hornish Jr. was able to walk away from a crash during Friday's practice for the May 29 Indianapolis 500.

Dana lost control heading into turn two on the 21/2-mile oval and backed hard into the outside wall. Hornish ran over debris from Dana's wreck, flipped high into the air, turned over and skidded along the track on the open cockpit of his Team Penske entry.

Hornish was able to scramble from his overturned car and came away with only a cut and a bruise on his right knee. Safety workers removed Dana from his battered car and speedway officials said he was taken by ambulance to Methodist Hospital, where he was awake, alert and in good condition with a spinal fracture and a concussion.

"I tried to drive between the debris and the wall and I think I ran over a large piece of his gearbox," said the unflappable Hornish, who had a fast lap Friday of 226.741 mph. "It's a shame because the car was running really well. It was our backup car and we were thinking about qualifying it tomorrow. Now we'll have to go back to our primary car and try to get it ready."

Asked what he was thinking when the car was in the air, Hornish said, "This isn't going to be fun."

Hornish, who was limping on the injured knee, said it was "definitely the wildest ride I've ever had in one of these cars. But it's also about the least injury from something like that.

"I didn't even realize I'd hit my knee until I was sliding down the track upside down."

It was Dana's second crash in two days and the fifth accident overall since the track opened for Indy 500 practice on Tuesday. Buddy Rice, the defending Indy winner, also sustained a concussion and a back injury in a crash on Wednesday. He spent one night in the hospital, but was released Thursday and is expected to be cleared to drive next week.