INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Marcus Armstrong, with Meyer Shank Racing, crashed during practice on the first day of qualifying for the Indianapolis 500.

Armstrong crashed on Turn 1. He started to lose control and the back of his car slammed against the wall.

Armstrong gave a wave and a thumbs up as he was going into the ambulance. He was on a stretcher.

Armstrong went to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Emergency Medical Center and is said to be awake and alert.

This is a developing story and will be updated as new information is released.

Ross Chastain and William Byron battled side-by-side in the closing laps of the first heat, with Chastain holding off Byron for second. Ryan Blaney and Alex Bowman rounded out the top five.

Joey Loegano held off Chase Elliott for second in Heat Race No. 2, followed by Kyle Busch and Chris Buescher.

The 75-lap heat races set the starting lineup for Sunday’s NASCAR All-Star Race, which begins at 8 p.m. ET.

-Photo credit: Rusty Jarrett, NKP for Ford Performance

SKI Autosports’ Memo Gidley took the lead away from Turner Motorsport’s Justin Rothberg on the first lap Saturday (May 17). From there, he held on to take his first GT America powered by AWS win of the year at Sebring International Raceway.

“We had a great start and that was awesome going around the outside and inside [of Rothberg],” Gidley told SRO America’s Amanda Busick after the race. “Then, I found out that we had a five-second penalty. We had a couple seconds’ lead at that point, so I knew that we needed to keep pushing, pushing, pushing. We just had enough.”

The margin of victory was .364 seconds over Rothberg. GMG Racing’s Kyle Washington was third, then Mishumotors’ Mirco Schultis.

Rothberg started from pole in his BMW in a depleted field as only eight cars took the start. However, his lead did not last long as SKI Autosports’ Memo Gidley got a big run exiting turn 1.

Gidley was able to beat Rothberg into the braking zone at turn 3 and made that move stick to take the overall lead.

Once out front, Rothberg was able to keep tabs with Gidley and not let the Audi pull out. This ended up being key as 12 minutes into the race, the stewards issued Gidley a five-second post-race penalty due to a crewmember reaching into the car too close to the start of the pace lap.

As a result, all Rothberg needed to do to get the win was to simply keep Gidley in sight. However, as the race continued on, Gidley began to pull away.

Further back, Schultis was third in his Callaway Corvette and running very well until he slid off-course at turn 13. He managed to keep his car out of the wall, but dropped back to fifth.

With 12 minutes to go, Gidley had a lead of over four seconds before lapped traffic allowed Rothberg to pull in to less than three seconds back. Once the traffic was cleared, Gidley was able to open his lead to more than six seconds.

From there, Gidley held on to take the victory. The margin was ultimately large enough at the finish so that Gidley kept the victory after the five-second penalty was applied.

In GT4, JTR Motorsports Engineering’s Anthony McIntosh started from pole in his Toyota GR Supra. Much like Rothberg, his lead was short-lived as 89x Motorsports’ Michael Fitzpatrick took the lead away on the first lap.

McIntosh was able to stay with Fitzpatrick for the opening 10 minutes of the race. Then, Fitzpatrick got a little loose under braking for turn 3. That allowed McIntosh to slip back past to retake the lead.

For the rest of the race, McIntosh managed to hold onto a small lead. At times, the lead was as high as 1.5 seconds, while there was a point in which Fitzpatrick got the lead down to a little more than half a second.

In the final laps, McIntosh was able to expand his lead back out and take the win. The margin of victory was 2.249 seconds over Fitzpatrick.

Washington turned in a lap at 109.585 mph. This stood up as the fastest lap of the race and gives him the pole for Race No. 2 on Sunday.

Race No. 2 for GT America powered by AWS is scheduled for 9:05 a.m. ET Sunday morning. The race will stream live on the GT World YouTube channel.

Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He’s the manager of the site’s FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site’s Sports Car racing editor.

Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.

The heat races are over and the lineup is set (for now) for the NASCAR All-Star Race.

For most of the NASCAR Truck race at North Wilkesboro, Corey Heim was firmly in control. It was a dominant performance that didn’t end with a victory celebration, but bitterness and anger for the driver of the No. 11 TRICON Toyota.

In an overtime finish, Heim had to deal with two Front Row Motorsports drivers harassing him for the race win. Layne Riggs got a big run from the outside and pulled underneath Heim at the white flag. He slid up and contact was made as they fought over the lead. Heim got up into the dirtier lanes and spun out, collecting some other trucks mid-pack.

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Riggs successfully took the lead, but only for a moment as fellow FRM driver Chandler Smith came out of nowhere, touching doors as he muscled by his teammate. Smith captured the victory while Riggs finished second.

“We fought and clawed today,” said Smith, who led just one lap after coming from the rear of the field. “Had to start in the back and I feel like at this place, tires kind of matter but they also kind of don’t. For us to come from the back says a lot about how good this Ford F-150 was. I didn’t think we were as good as the No. 11 [Heim], obviously. We had a tire advantage on him there and he was still able to start checking back out … Props to those guys. They had a really fast truck today.

“But that last restart, I did everything but the right thing. My teammate Layne Riggs executed perfectly and we came out on the right end of the stick. Happy we could bring one home for Front Row Motorsports.”

Heim and Riggs react to controversial finish

Heim marched down pit road to exchange words with Riggs, but it never escalated beyond that. Heim finished 17th.

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“Just why?” Heim told NASCAR on FOX. “More than anything, he tried to do it to the #7 [Carson Hocevar] last week for the win and mission accomplished for him this week, I guess. And it cost him one too, so I don’t know. We’ve given up so many of them this year after pretty much dominating most of this race. The #38 [Smith] was the only other guy (who) was rightfully good. Felt like he probably deserved to win, not the #34 [Riggs]. I got really loose into (Turn) 3. Just struggled being loose on the short runs, and he had an opportunity, and he wrecked me. Just disappointed.”

Riggs, who completed a 1-2 finish for FRM, offered no apologies after a brief discussion with both Heim and Heim’s crew chief, Scott Zipadelli.

“They’re displeased,” said Riggs. “But I feel like he got really loose in (Turns) 3 and 4, and kind of gave the bottom up. We were side-by-side on the frontstretch and I had a huge run. I went bottom and I didn’t fence him. I slid him up the track and gave him one lane there. We’re at North Wilkesboro on the last lap for a Truck win, so I feel like I didn’t do anything wrong there. It was hard racing all day. I feel like everybody came out of there alive and we had a good finish, and I only really care about me and my team.”

The final stage

With 100 laps to go, it was actually Grant Enfinger leading the way, but a bump from Smith allowed Heim to take control. From that point onward, it seemed like no one could touch him.

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However, with 40 laps to go, an issue for Tyler Tomassi triggered a caution flag. Heim decided against giving up track position, staying out while second-place runner Smith dove to pit road. Most of the lead lap trucks followed him in for fresh rubber.

Restarting fifth, Smith quickly charged forward, but still found it difficult to mount a real challenge against a dominant Heim. But after the race leader caught lapped traffic at a bad spot, Smith was able to get to his rear bumper. He did not hesitate to give him a shot, moving him up the track and pulling alongside. We didn’t get to see the outcome of this thrilling battle as Ben Rhodes spun Brent Crews around, causing a caution with just four laps to go.

This set up the dramatic overtime finish where Smith prevailed against Riggs and Heim. This is Smith’s second win of the year, becoming just the second Truck Series driver after Heim to earn multiple wins in 2025.

Behind Smith and Riggs, Tyler Ankrum finished third, Daniel Hemric fourth, and Grant Enfinger fifth. Ty Majeski, Gio Ruggiero, Kaden Honeycutt, Kyle Busch, and Sammy Smith filled out the remainder of the top ten.

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1	Front Row Motorsports	38		Ford	255	1:46’33.511		9	55
2	Front Row Motorsports	34		Ford	255	+0.611 1:46’34.122	0.611	5	46
3		18		Chevrolet	255	+0.612 1:46’34.123	0.001	6	45
4		19		Chevrolet	255	+1.595 1:46’35.106	0.983	6	36
5		9		Chevrolet	255	+1.596 1:46’35.107	0.001	6	44
6		98		Ford	255	+1.964 1:46’35.475	0.368	6	31
7	TRICON Garage	17		Toyota	255	+2.634 1:46’36.145	0.670	5	40
8	Niece Motorsports	45		Chevrolet	255	+2.947 1:46’36.458	0.313	6	29
9		07		Chevrolet	255	+3.031 1:46’36.542	0.084	6
10	Spire Motorsports	7		Chevrolet	255	+3.578 1:46’37.089	0.547	6
11		15		Toyota	255	+3.725 1:46’37.236	0.147	7	26
12	ThorSport Racing	13		Ford	255	+3.726 1:46’37.237	0.001	7	32
13	ThorSport Racing	66		Ford	255	+5.070 1:46’38.581	1.344	6	24
14		52		Toyota	255	+5.415 1:46’38.926	0.345	6	31
15	Spire Motorsports	71		Chevrolet	255	+5.746 1:46’39.257	0.331	6	26
16	McAnally Hilgemann Racing	81		Chevrolet	255	+10.115 1:46’43.626	4.369	6	21
17	TRICON Garage	11		Toyota	255	+12.776 1:46’46.287	2.661	5	38
18		88		Ford	254	+1 Lap 1:46’39.901	1 Lap	6	19
19	Henderson Motorsports	75		Chevrolet	254	+1 Lap 1:46’40.221	0.320	6	18
20	McAnally Hilgemann Racing	91		Chevrolet	254	+1 Lap 1:46’40.274	0.053	6	17
21	TRICON Garage	5		Toyota	254	+1 Lap 1:46’41.074	0.800	6	16
22	TRICON Garage	1		Toyota	254	+1 Lap 1:46’44.908	3.834	7	18
23		99		Ford	254	+1 Lap 1:46’45.932	1.024	7	16
24	Spire Motorsports	77		Chevrolet	253	+2 Laps 1:46’39.707	1 Lap	7	13
25		42		Chevrolet	253	+2 Laps 1:46’41.389	1.682	6	12
26	Rackley W.A.R.	26		Chevrolet	253	+2 Laps 1:46’41.989	0.600	7	11
27	Niece Motorsports	44		Chevrolet	251	+4 Laps 1:46’42.024	2 Laps	8	10
28		76		Chevrolet	251	+4 Laps 1:46’42.815	0.791	7	9
29	Reaume Brothers Racing	33		Ford	248	+7 Laps 1:46’48.457	3 Laps	6	8
30	Young’s Motorsports	02		Chevrolet	242	+13 Laps 1:46’49.143	6 Laps	8	7
31	Reaume Brothers Racing	22		Ford	209	+46 Laps 1:35’34.130	33 Laps	13
32	Freedom Racing Enterprises	67		Chevrolet	153	+102 Laps 1:08’02.081	56 Laps	8	5
33		2		Ford	96	+159 Laps 46’04.808	57 Laps	10	4
34		6		Chevrolet	62	+193 Laps 36’30.258	34 Laps	9	3

To read more Motorsport.com articles visit our website.

All-Star Cars

Kyle Larson – Kyle Larson didn’t practice at North Wilkesboro. He was at Indy today. Justin Allgaier practiced racing the #5. Allgaier focused on getting the #5 to handle good. Allgaier thinks Larson will have something good to race on Sunday. Allgaier won’t race in the Heat races on Saturday. On Sunday, Larson will be starting in the rear of the field for the All-Star Race.

Tyler Reddick – Tyler Reddick had really good pace. About 30 minutes into practice, Reddick jumped up to #1 overall. Reddick ended practice #1. Reddick ran +100 laps. Reddick said his car was feeling really solid during an interview. Reddick said the track was widening out. Reddick had the best 10-lap average.

Joey Logano – Joey Logano had really good speed over a run. Logano practiced running different lines. Logano ran +100 laps so he should have a great feel for his car. Logano had the 8th best 10-lap average.

Christopher Bell – Christopher Bell had a good car in practice. Bell said his car was fast if he could get it driving a little better. He said it has a lot of potential in it but he has a little bit of work to do. Bell had the 2nd best 10-lap average.

Chris Buescher – Chris Buescher has a backup crew chief this weekend since his team is opting to begin the crew chief suspension at this time.

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