Conway and Tagliani crash at Indy

UPDATE Medical update from Dr. Michael Olinger, medical director for the Indy Racing League: #24 Mike Conway has been transported to Methodist Hospital for further evaluation. He is awake and alert. #34 Alex Tagliani has been checked and released at the Clarian Emergency Medical Center. He is cleared to drive.

ALEX TAGLIANI (No. 34 Conquest Racing): "Honestly, I don't know. We were just warming up the car. On the third lap, it was a pretty slow lap, 199 (mph), I got into Turn 1 and all of the sudden I lost the rear. It's pretty unfortunate. I don't think the car is too badly damaged. I looked at it when I got out of the car. We'll see if we can put it back together and try to qualify this afternoon."

05/10/09 British rookie Mike Conway crashed his Dallara Honda in Turn 1 at Indy in early Sunday morning practice and Alex Tagliani repeated the feat as soon as the track went green again, losing the backend and going rear-end first into the Turn 1 outside wall. Tagliani got out of the car and appears OK. No report on Conway's condition.

From Tim Wohlford at the Speedway – When a car hits the wall in the short chute at Indy, you can hear the "boom" all over the speedway. In the cases of Alex Tagliani and Mike Conway, they made very loud booms.

Conway backed into the wall between turns 1 and 2 a few minutes into morning practice. Damage is probably extensive enough to prevent a qualifying run today. Mike was transferred to Methodist hospital for further evaluation.

Tagliani hit the wall in that same short chute soon after practice resumed. Tag's car was severely damaged too, but he was quickly cleared by medical staff, and returned to his garage in time to see the car moved into his garage on the back of a wrecker. Worse yet, Alex didn't get his car past 200 mph in the 4 laps before that incident. "Honestly, I don't know. We were just warming up the car. On the third lap, it was a pretty slow lap, 199 (mph), I got into Turn 1 and all of the sudden I lost the rear. It's pretty unfortunate. I don't think the car is too badly damaged. I looked at it when I got out of the car. We'll see if we can put it back together and try to qualify this afternoon."

Fastest of the first practice was Dan Wheldon at 224.164, which would've earned him a front-row spot in yesterday's qualification attempts. In fairness, however, the weather during Dan's run today was very much improved over yesterday's conditions, with only gentle breezes instead of gusting winds. Also fast this morning were Justin Wilson and Paul Tracy.