Rookie driver honors his roots on Indianapolis 500 helmet
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Sporting custom helmets is becoming a trend for IndyCar drivers. But those custom helmets are flashier for the Indianapolis 500, and one rookie driver made his very personal.
Ed Carpenter Racing‘s Christian Rasmussen is looking to qualify for his first ever Indy 500. He’ll be wearing a helmet not only decked out in Indy 500 logos and notable parts of the racetrack, but also with pictures of family and friends from throughout the years.
“It’s kind of become a thing for the 500 to do a special helmet, so I thought I would do the same,” Rasmussen said. “And I was like, I want it to have something meaningful on there, so I thought that obviously I have the bricks there in the blue, the Indy 500 logo. But most important in all, I have people from through my career that have helped me get where I am today.”
News 8 Sports’ Andrew Chernoff spoke with Rasmussen live at the track on WISH-TV’s Midday Wednesday. He asked Rasmussen about finding all the photos that appeared on the helmet.
“I had to go deep in the old Dropbox folders to find all the good pictures that I wanted on there,” Rasmussen said. “I think it turned out awesome.”
As for actually racing on the track, it has been a slow start to the week for practice. Drivers got less than 30 minutes of practice time on Tuesday and did not get out on the track until after 3 p.m. on Wednesday, five hours after the originally planned start time.
When Rasmussen was asked about finally getting some track time, Rasmussen had a beaming smile. He just wants to get out and start turning some laps.
“It’s really hard to get up to speed with 230+ miles per hour with basically no experience, so I’m really hoping for some laps soon,” Rasmussen said.
Rasmussen won the Indy NXT championship last season.
Rasmussen is currently in 25th place in the NTT IndyCar Series standings. He finished in 20th in the Sonsio Grand Prix on Saturday, May 11th at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. His best finish so far this season is 19th at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.