Stefan Wilson has been diagnosed with a fractured vertebrae following his scary accident in practice for the Indy 500 Monday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
A Cusick Motorsports tweet Monday night revealed the 33-year-old driver suffered a fractured 12th thoracic vertebrae and will be kept in the hospital overnight for observation.
The injury means Wilson will miss Sunday’s Indy 500.
Stefan Wilson is out of the #Indy500. pic.twitter.com/tAb2bY7Q5M
— INDYCAR on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) May 22, 2023
Wilson suffered the injury after his No. 24 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports Chevrolet got hit from behind by Katherine Legge and both cars plowed hard into the outside wall.
Huge crash involving Stefan Wilson and Katherine Legge in practice; Legge is okay, Wilson was stretchered out but gave a thumbs up#Indy500pic.twitter.com/NwinAEI9R1
— Dom 🇨🇿 (@Wom_Dings) May 22, 2023
Wilson left the track on a stretcher, although he managed to give a thumbs-up to the crowd as he was being loaded into an ambulance. Legge was not injured.
https://twitter.com/MrMatthewCFB/status/1660712822152503310
A fractured vertebrae is relatively good news for Wilson considering the severity of the crash.
Wilson, who is the younger brother of the late Formula One and IndyCar driver Justin Wilson, has made only a handful of IndyCar starts in his career. He’s had high and low moments in the Indy 500. He led the 2018 Indy 500 thanks to a fuel gamble, eyeing what would have been an historic upset victory, but was forced to pit with just four laps remaining.
In the 2021 Indy 500, Wilson crashed early in the race and finished last.
Fans filled Twitter with get-well wishes for the injured driver, and speculated about who will replace him in Sunday’s race.
Terrible luck, best wishes in your recovery @stef_wilson
— Bryson Sullivan 🇺🇲 (@NaturalParadigm) May 23, 2023
Absolutely heartbreaking. You are in our hearts this week, @stef_wilson
— Elevated Racing (@Elevated_Racing) May 23, 2023
brutal. such a good dude
— Sam Birchenough (@sambirchenough) May 23, 2023
A lot of people want an injured driver, taken out by a RLL driver, replaced with another RLL driver. Never going to happen.
— Fred Barker (@phread3) May 23, 2023
It’ll either be Sage Karam, JR Hildebrand, or Graham Rahal. Everyone will try like hell to make it Rahal.
— Michael Samuel (@Michael21045634) May 23, 2023
My best guess is @SageKaram is the replacement driver.
Get well soon Stefan.
— Brady ❎🎃👻 (@bradycollins21) May 23, 2023
They should give the spot to Graham and withdraw the #24 entry. I don’t know any other driver that matches Stefan dimensions.
— Evan Thorpe (@awesomeevan24) May 23, 2023
