Alonso to miss Monaco to race Indy 500

[Starter]

Indy 500 is a fun race, but things that went in it underscore just how dangerous this form of racing is. Nothing has really changed since 2011. Drivers get injured on regular basis. First, Bourdais crashed in the qualifying requiring surgery from broken hip and fractured pelvis. He is confident he can return to racing for the season's end. Next, Dixon's crash looked horrendous. While Scott Dixon was able to walk away, I suspect we were lucky those two crashes weren't worse.

I'm not sure what else you could expect when the lap speeds are consistently well over 200 mph for the whole lap. That's a lot of energy to dissipate when something goes wrong. Still, those crashes weren't bad at all compared to not all that long ago when a regular feature of the event was a death or two.