INDIANAPOLIS 500 / UPDATE : Piquet Not Injured When He Is First to Hit the Wall

This year’s first serious brush with the wall at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway occurred Monday when former Formula One champion Nelson Piquet spun and backed his Lola-Menard into the concrete barrier. The Brazilian veteran, still limping from a crash last year that shattered his feet, was not injured, but the car suffered moderate damage.

Piquet was running at 217.213 m.p.h. shortly before the accident, in which he clipped the wall with his right rear tire and then did a reverse half spin before smacking the wall a second time.

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Rookie Robby Gordon, who has A.J. Foyt as his tutor and Parnelli Jones as a lifelong family friend, says: “If I can combine the best of A.J. and the best of P.J., I’ll be in pretty good shape, won’t I?”

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Rusty Wallace, who leads the NASCAR Winston Cup standings, dropped into Roger Penske’s garage for a visit on his way to California for Sunday’s stock car race at Sears Point.

Later, he took an Indy 500 pace car to nearby Indianapolis Raceway Park to test his broken wrist with a new carbon-fiber brace.

“I plan to run Sears Point, but if I can’t do it, I’ll get out on the first lap and turn the car over to Scott Sharp,” he said. “Right now, though, the only race left in the world is Sears Point.”

Wallace, who drives a Penske car in the NASCAR series, was injured in a crash at Talladega, Ala., last week.

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Indy car defending champion Bobby Rahal was ill with flu so his No. 1 car was given a shakedown by Mike Groff, Rahal’s test driver. Groff, of Los Angeles, is entered in a car for the 500, but Rahal said he does not expect to have him try to qualify. Groff is preparing to make his debut in a Rahal-Hogan car on June 6 in Milwaukee.

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Ten of this year’s 11 rookie drivers have completed their final over-200-m.p.h. shakedown in front of veteran drivers.

Only Nigel Mansell, who has yet to make an appearance, is missing from the 1993 rookie crop. At last reports, the British champion was taking short walks and swimming in his pool in Clearwater, Fla., and is expected to arrive Wednesday to begin practice.

Stephan Gregoire of France, one of Dick Simon’s stable of drivers, is the fastest rookie with a lap at 219.635, seventh overall for the week.

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Willy T. Ribbs, back after a year’s absence since he became Indy’s first black driver in 1991, took his first laps in Derrick Walker’s Lola-Ford Cosworth.

Ribbs barely squeezed over the 200 mark with a lap at 200.490 m.p.h.