IndyCar pleased with safety improvements following crashes  

The domed skids, which by creating a low-pressure area under the peak of the 9mm dome are meant to slow down the rotation rate of an out-of-control car, are regarded by IndyCar’s vp of competition, engineering, as vindicated by Pippa Mann’s shunt during her first qualifying run of the weekend.

Stripped to qualifying levels of downforce, the #63 Dale Coyne Racing-Honda came off Turn 2 out of control, but only clipped the outside wall before spinning toward the inside wall and making more mild contact.

Pappas told Motorsport.com: “You saw a lot of smoke, four major flat-spots on her tires as she spun and you saw the rear flaps deploy, because we painted day-glo on the backside of them so we could see them properly.

“It looked like we saw them perform the way we all thought they’d do, which was nice to see.”

Asked if he was relatively happy with how Spencer Pigot’s Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda had reacted when it spun into the wall on Wednesday, Pappas said: “Absolutely. It definitely tried to lift up and the rear came down very quick. I was pretty impressed with that.

“I think everything we tried to do over the off-season for safety purposes have seen results that are encouraging.

“In the case of [Max] Chilton, he got around backward and had the full trimmed-out aerokit on the car and again, the shunt was minimized.”

Pappas went on: “Our quest for improvements in safety won’t stop, but I think the incidents this week help to show we’re going in the right direction.”