Nolan Siegel opens up about Day 1 of the Indianapolis 500 Open Test

The Arrow McLaren driver Nolan Siegel opened up about his first day of testing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in an Instagram post. He finished testing in 31st place out of the 34 drivers and uploaded pictures of himself and his car.

In his last outing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2024 with his former team, Dale Coyne Racing, Siegel couldn't participate in the 'Greatest Spectacle of Racing' as he crashed out during the fast Friday practice session. The young American driver lost control of his car at Turn 2, making the vehicle turn backwards and slide down the wall before flipping nearly 200-300 feet down the track. Siegel walked away from the accident unscathed.

Siegel wrote in the caption of his Instagram post:

"Thumbs up for day one back at the speedway. 👍 The #6 looks pretty good all dressed up for the Indy 500!"

This season marks Siegel's first full season with the Arrow McLaren team. He joined the Indiana-based team mid-season last year to replace Theo Pourchaire and raced in the last 10 races of the season. His first season with the Papaya outfit is not off to a great start, as he qualified in 11th place for the first race at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg held on March 2. Moreover, he ended up crashing with Will Powers and Louis Foster on the first lap of the race.

Nolan Siegel will look forward to qualifying in this year's Indy 500 and scoring some points in the next few races.

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Nolan Siegel recalls fan support after a disappointing Indy 500

In the 2024 season, Nolan Siegel attempted the Indy 500 with Dale Coyne Racing but kept crashing throughout the weekend. His first few races proved to be challenging and did not seem to help him get a full-time seat. The 20-year-old thought that participating in the Indy 500 would help him prove himself and set the record straight. However, he had two major crashes that weekend, which bumped him out of the race that year. He spoke about how he felt disheartened about the whole weekend.

In a conversation with Doug Boles on 'Doug and the Drivers,' Nolan Siegel spoke about the huge amount of support he received from IndyCar fans that weekend, which helped him get through.

"Yeah, it was a tough experience, right? Like that was one of the hardest weeks of my life for sure, but yeah, I mean in the moment you know it's the Indy 500, you have no choice but to try, right? So, no I definitely didn't expect the response and it was really nice to [see that].

"The IndyCar Community is great and and it was just very very nice to receive the support that I received after that and certainly unexpected, but something good did come out of it; I learned a huge amount, and I can't wait to go back," he added.

Nolan Siegel is gearing up to attempt his second Indianapolis 500.