Foster rapid again, robbed of strong result in Detroit

Louis Foster escaped an enormous crash in the Detroit IndyCar race he had previously led and looked set to score a career-best finish in before a suspension failure completely out of his control.

Foster, 21, continues to impress after seven races of his IndyCar career so far having graduated from the Indy NXT series he was champion of last year.

In Detroit, he ran an off-sync strategy starting on the harder tyre and going longer into his first stint than a lot of his rivals, which jumped him to the front of the field. He led his first laps as an IndyCar driver.

He was running in 15th when the suspension failure occurred on the run to Turn 1 at over 180mph, and was likely to finish further forward on his strategy.

Foster wanted to personally thank IndyCar for the strength of the cars and the AMR Safety Team which got to the scene of the accident rapidly. He also checked in with fellow driver Felix Rosenqvist, who was an innocent bystander collected in the crash but was cleared and released from the medical centre afterwards.

“Firstly, thank you to everyone for all of the messages, I am OK,” said Foster, who is backed by Copart, a global leader in online auto auctions.

“I’ve talked to Felix and I'm also very happy that he is OK. Massive thank you to the IndyCar medical team and IndyCar as a whole for continuing to put driver safety first.

“To explain what happened, on lap 83, approaching Turn 3 at 180mph, my front right suspension failed. This was by far the biggest and scariest crash I've had in my career, I'm very thankful to be able to get out under my own power.

“We believe it was caused by a bolt failure on the mounting block, but more internal investigation is required to be sure.

“The biggest bummer is that we were on for our season best result, and we led multiple laps, up the front on our strategy. But this is racing, sometimes it doesn't love you back. See you all in 2 weeks.”

Foster had qualified in 14th place, taking his average for the season so far to 13, which is extremely strong for a rookie in a 27-car field.

He's also finished eighth and fifth respectively in the two practice sessions leading into qualifying, showing his pace was genuine in Detroit

There’s a weekend off now for the IndyCar field before heading to a night race at Gateway in St. Louis. Foster won all of the oval races last year in his Indy NXT campaign, including Gateway.