Despite crashes, cars stay on the ground in Indy 500

No cars went airborne. No one was seriously injured. No one will be calling on the IndyCar Series office to take action.

This alone is worth celebrating after two weeks of scary crashes plagued practices leading up to the 99th Indianapolis 500.

Reminders of those were ever-present Sunday as a handful of collisions interrupted the race, with a few forcing cringes from the crowd. Five crashes involving 12 cars took place during the 500. Here's how it happened:

Lap 1

Yes. Lap 1. As if the Grand Prix of Indianapolis hasn't provided enough rough starts at Indianapolis Motor Speedway recently, the 500 was green for all of 30 seconds before cars started piling up. Heading into Turn 1, Takuma Sato tried to get aggressive early and budge past Sage Karam on the outside. Only Sato never had the position to do so.

Karam was already running next to Ryan Hunter-Reay and there wasn't room to go three wide. So as the 20-year-old American closed into the wall, he boxed in Sato. They made contact and spun until Karam hit the barrier. Ryan Briscoe — driving for the injured James Hinchcliffe — caught a piece of the debris and spun out as well. Sato escaped with suspension and front-wing damage. Briscoe damaged his front right, but continued racing. Karam was unable to return to racing, after getting medically cleared, due to his car's damage.

"It's a stupid move considering it's a 500-mile race and we're in Turn 1," Karam said. "Just to put to your car and other people at risk like that is stupid. He was in over his head and a little too excited."

It was the first yellow flag on Lap 1 since Davey Hamilton crashed in Turn 2 in 2010.

Lap 64

Noblesville native Bryan Clauson was the only driver involved in this Turn 4 wreck.

Clauson got offline entering the front straightaway and couldn't recover before his car hit the wall. He exited his car on his own soon after the yellow flag came out. He was checked, cleared and released from the IMS medical center.

"Just got a little high on a long green flag run there," Clauson said. "Got up in the marble and there was no saving it."

Lap 113

Things feel apart quickly midway through the race for a few teams. After getting sandwiched on Turn 1 late in the 500 last year and hitting the wall, Ed Carpenter — who had a dangerous crash last weekend — became the aggressor in the same situation. He suffered the same result.

Carpenter nicked his front right tire on the back of Oriol Servia's car while trying to pass him on the inside, sending both drivers into the SAFER barrier. Servia and Carpenter were each cleared from the medical center.

"Funny enough, we talked the other day about what happened there (last year)," Servia said. "I'm sure I'm going to get a phone call once he sees the replay. It's a shame."

Yet shortly after the yellow flag came out another accident occurred on pit road.

All three Dale Coyne Racing vehicles had stopped for maintenance with Pippa Mann finishing first. As Mann drove back onto pit road, James Davison pulled out and hit her. The bump wasn't enough to damage the cars, but it did knock Davison's vehicle sideways, sending it sliding into the right crew members of Tristan Vautier.

Greg Senerius and Daniel Jang were each knocked down and needing assistance. An ambulance arrived on the scene moments later, carried Jang off the track and transported him to IU Health Methodist Hospital. X-ray's showed that he'd suffered an ankle injury and was taken for surgery.

"I had a car on the side of me and I was backing off to slide in behind him," Mann said. "That's why I wasn't in the fast lane. There was already a car there."

Senerius was cleared and released from the medical center at IMS. Earlier in the race Eric Wainscott, a front tire changer for Gabby Chaves, was also injured yet cleared and released shortly after.

Lap 153

Tony Kanaan had been driving a marvelous race — he led 30 laps — and became a mainstay in the top five for the majority of the afternoon. According to team owner Chip Ganassi on the ABC broadcast, Kanaan wanted a front wing adjustment to help with the car's downforce.

It didn't work. Heading into Turn 4, Kanaan spun out and hit the wall, ending a day that could've seen him collect his second Indy 500 victory. He was not injured.

Lap 177

Just as the intensity began to build, a multicar accident in Turn 4 halted it.

Jack Hawksworth and Sebastian Saavedrea clipped each other and began to spin with rookie Stefano Coletti drafting close behind. Coletti couldn't avoid the contact and barreled straight into them. Saavedrea's car was slammed into the wall as debris fluttered across the track.

Coletti and Hawksworth climbed from their cars uninjured and without assistance. Saavedrea was unable to do the same. Although conscious, the Colombian was carried from his vehicle by emergency crews. He suffered a right foot contusion and will need further evaluation before he can drive again.

Perhaps these incidents would seem more concerning if it hadn't been for the weeks leading up to Sunday when three cars were spun around and sent airborne during practice. Nothing of the sort happened during the 500.

"It was good to see no one get hurt obviously," Karam said. "The cars were holding up good."

Follow Star reporter Blake Schuster on Twitter: @Schustee.​