James Hinchcliffe walks away from Indy 500 qualifying shunt

James Hinchcliffe escaped injury in a hard crash in his qualifying run for the 103rd Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge.

The Canadian drifted high coming off Turn 2 before the car snapped loose on his second lap. He backed into the SAFER Barrier which lifted the rear off the ground. The car then turned onto its side and briefly caught fire before flipping back onto its bottom.

The 2016 Indy 500 polesitter climbed out under his own power of his battered No. 5 ARROW Electronics Honda for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports and was cleared by the IU Medical Center staff.

“The car was on the edge in 3 and 4 but 1 and 2 was solid,” Hinchcliffe told NBC Sports. “I was planning to dial some understeer at the north side of the track on that lap.”

“Something just caught me in 2, I don’t know if it was a gust of wind or what. We had been pretty aggressive on setup and with a gusty that’s what happens.”

The Arrow SPM team is fitting a Honda powerplant in their backup chassis in an attempt to qualify later today. Missing the cutoff today would put the team in danger of missing the 500 for the second straight year as they would have to qualify in the last row shootout and wouldn’t start higher than 31st.