INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Alexander Rossi was sore Tuesday morning after enduring one of the hardest crashes of his career.
He's still determined not to let an injured right ankle or bad left hand keep him out of IndyCar's biggest race. So the Ed Carpenter Racing team spent Tuesday afternoon in Gasoline Alley, prepping Rossi's backup car with the expectation the Californian will use his best career starting position at the Indianapolis 500, second, to claim his second race win in front of a sellout crowd.
At least that's the plan.
Rossi was still recovering from Monday night surgery on his ankle and hand. Indianapolis Motor Speedway medical director Dr. Julia Vaizer will continue monitoring Rossi's recovery as he tries to return for Friday's final practice. And Rossi has every intention of climbing into that No. 20 car when WNBA star Caitlin Clark gives the traditional starting command.
“I feel like with where he (Rossi) is at, everybody from the doctors to Alex is super optimistic he’s going to be ready to go," team president Tim Broyles told The Associated Press. "So as we’re sitting here today, I don’t feel like we’ll have any concerns moving forward, If one of the milestones he needs to hit over the next few days doesn’t happen or he’s not comfortable, we have a backup plan.”
Here, in the fast lane, it's a way of life. Every team has backup cars and every team executive has a list of backup drivers they can call in a pinch — a contact list Broyles acknowledged he's been checking since Monday.
And when the inevitable big crash happens, everyone knows how to react.
That's why Broyles was in Gasoline Alley on Tuesday when there was on-track activity. Back in the Carpenter garages, crew members worked to switch out engines for race day and tried to finetune the car Rossi used in last year's race.
“It’s a bit of work for the guys, but the car he’s running is actually the car he ran in the 500 last year,” Broyles said. “He raced the car in the (Indianapolis) GP last weekend, we had it prepared as a backup car for the 500 anyway after the GP so we were already kind of prepared for it it anyway but I don’t have any concerns over it. Alex led the race with it last year.”
Arrow McLaren scrapped its scheduled Wednesday off to help Pato O'Ward. The Spaniard was too close to avoid Rossi's spinning car Monday and wound up hitting the side of Rossi's car while severely damaging his own. The two-time Indy runner-up qualified sixth on the outside of Row 2 but now must rely on a backup car as he tries again to become the first Mexican to reach victory lane at the Brickyard.
And after Conor Daly ran over debris from the crash, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing spent Monday night and Tuesday morning fixing his broken front wing and an undertray beneath his car. Daly, the stepson of Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Doug Boles will start eighth, the middle of Row 3. Boles also serves as IndyCar president.
“Hopefully the (crew) guys can get that all fixed up. I am still quite happy with the car overall,” Daly said. “It would be nice to get some more running and we got some very pit stops in today too. Hopefully, the Carb Day weather is good so we can get some laps in before the race.”
The good news is those three and French-Swiss driver Romain Grosjean of Dale Coyne Racing, who also was swept up in the crash, are expected to be on the track before Sunday — even if Friday's weather doesn't cooperate. Grosjean is starting No. 24.
There's a 51% chance of rain in the forecast for Carb Day activities, but Broyles said his understanding is Plan B would put Rossi and the others on the track Saturday for a shakedown, a systems check and the ability to make sure Rossi will be comfortable racing.
“He’s in good spirts, yeah, he sounded good this morning,” Broyles said. “It was a big impact. He has a couple little, nagging things, so we’ll see how that goes.”
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
Alexander Rossi drives through the third turn during qualifications for the Indianapolis 500 auto race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Sunday, May 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Former winners of the Indianapolis 500 auto race pose at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Monday, May 18, 2026. Front row, left to right, Will Power, of Australia; Josef Newgarden; Alex Palou, of Spain; and Scott Dixon, of New Zealand. Second row: left to right, Alexander Rossi; Ryan Hunter-Reay; Helio Castroneves, of Brazil; Takuma Sato, of Japan; and Marcus Ericsson, of Sweden. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
There are primary elections Tuesday in Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia, Oregon, Idaho and Pennsylvania. These contests will be a further test of President Donald Trump 's grip on Republican voters.
In Kentucky, Ed Gallrein won Republican nomination for U.S. House in Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District, beating incumbent Thomas Massie. Trump handpicked Gallrein after Massie broke with him over issues including the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. .
In Georgia, Republicans are choosing a challenger to take on Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff. Trump has not endorsed a candidate, which could lead to a runoff on June 16. There’s also a bruising Republican primary for governor. Most polls are closed.
In Alabama, Republican voters will choose a U.S. Senate candidate to replace Tommy Tuberville, who is running for governor. Polls have closed.
In Pennsylvania, Democratic voters will pick their nominees to flip four Republican-held seats seen as critical for the party to retake the U.S. House. The races will be a test of Gov. Josh Shapiro’s influence. Polls have closed.
In Oregon, Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek will face nearly two dozen challengers. Voters will also decide whether to raise gas taxes to pay for improvements to the state’s roads and bridges. Voting concludes at 11 p.m. ET.
In Idaho, voters are picking their party's nominees for governor and U.S. Senate. Voting concludes at 11 p.m. ET.
The Latest:
Trump-endorsed Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones was the frontrunner for much of the lead-up to tonight’s gubernatorial primary, until health care executive and billionaire Rick Jackson entered the race just a few months ago.
Jackson spent millions of his own dollars to flood the state with campaign ads.
Many candidates backed by the president have enjoyed comfortable victories in their elections this primary season, but few have been up against a candidate with such a large campaign budget. Jones and Jackson have advanced to a June 16 runoff election.
The Kentucky congressman claimed in his speech after his defeat that young voters were still on his side.
“People that want somebody that will go along to get along, I’ve never heard of that strategy but that seems to be what the voters want,” Massie said. “But not the young voters.”
The crowd was still energetic despite Massie’s loss, and started a chant of “No more wars!” that the congressman joined in on. Massie’s speech meandered through different topics and touched on other politicians before another chant started of “America First!”
“We stirred up something. There is a yearning in this country for someone who will vote for principles over party,” Massie said.
Gov. Josh Shapiro was uncontested in Tuesday’s primary. He’s seeking a second term in the fall and puts his clout on the line in the battleground state ahead of a potential 2028 bid for the White House.
The 52-year-old has made his opposition to Trump’s agenda a central focus of his reelection campaign.
Shapiro is on track to break his own fundraising record. He’s working to flip important Republican-held U.S. House seats and deliver the first Democratic-controlled state Legislature in more than three decades.
Republican state Treasurer Stacy Garrity ran uncontested for the GOP’s nomination.
Shapiro — who made Kamala Harris’ short list for a vice presidential running mate in 2024 — has never said whether he’s actually interested in running for president.
The president, who had waged his own social media campaign against Massie, posted a photo showing him and Gallrein under the words “Ed Gallrein Wins! Endorsed by President Trump!”
The two-term state treasurer was uncontested in the GOP primary.
Garrity is running as a strong backer of Trump’s agenda as she attempts to be the first Republican to win the office in Pennsylvania since 2010.
Shapiro ran uncontested for the Democratic Party’s nomination to seek a second term.
Garrity lagged badly behind Shapiro in fundraising after winning two relatively low-profile races for treasurer.
The result showed the president’s persisting influence over GOP voters, adding to a growing number of Trump-backed primary challengers to defeat Republican lawmakers who angered him in his second term.
Massie, who has served in Congress since 2012, fell into Trump’s crosshairs in part by pushing for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files and denouncing the war in Iran.
Gallrein, a former Navy Seal who avoided making public appearances on the campaign trail, ran on his military service and loyalty to the president. He accused Massie of forsaking Trump and the party.
Gallrein is expected to win the general election in the deeply red district.
The Pennsylvania governor’s election night rally is being held in a converted centrifuge where the U.S. Navy once tested g-forces on astronauts.
The crowd of local Democrats began trickling in to the Fuge after 7 p.m. ET, ordering drinks and picking at appetizers in a circular event space with a vaulted ceiling and a wraparound projection screen where astronauts used to be tested to the limits of human tolerance to gravity and acceleration.
The location — in suburban Philadelphia’s Bucks County — is symbolic because it in a congressional district where Gov. Josh Shapiro is trying to help Democrats knock off Republican U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick and take back control of Congress.
Shapiro ran unopposed for the nomination in his reelection bid and was expected to speak after 9 p.m. ET. He was expected to appear later with his endorsed candidate in the district, Democrat Bob Harvie.
The Georgia secretary of state’s office said that won’t delay reporting for the rest of the county’s results.
A judge ordered a precinct at Ison Springs Elementary School to stay open until 11:02 p.m. because the school was placed on lockdown just before noon and remained closed until 4 p.m. over an incident that was unrelated to the election, the Secretary of State’s office said.
Sandy Springs police said officers responded to a call about a man dressed in military-style gear and reports of possible gunshots fired in the area. After an extensive manhunt, a suspect was taken into custody, police said.
Eleven Cobb County precincts were also staying open late, with delayed closures ranging from six minutes to an hour.
U.S. Rep. Andy Barr, who was endorsed by Trump, beat Daniel Cameron, a former state attorney general who leaned into his Christianity on the campaign trail.
The winner in November will replace U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, who is stepping down in a generational changing of the guard for Republicans.
Trump swayed the race not just through his endorsement but by offering a third challenger, Nate Morris, an ambassadorship just over two weeks before Election Day. Morris, who fashioned himself as the MAGA candidate, withdrew from the race and encouraged his backers to support Barr.
Barr was first elected in 2012 in the 6th Congressional District. He is expected to win the general election in the Republican-dominated state.
Eleven polling places in Georgia’s Cobb County, in the Atlanta suburbs, will be staying open late because of issues that arose during the day.
Blake Evans, who oversees elections for the secretary of state’s office, said the precincts were staying open because of problems with the electronic poll pads that are used to to check in voters. The extensions range from six minutes at one location to an hour at another, according to a judge’s order.
Deputy Secretary of State Matt Tyser said they are waiting on an order from a Fulton County judge to extend voting at a precinct in Sandy Springs, just north of Atlanta. That’s because a “law enforcement issue” that was unrelated to the election forced the closure of the polling place for several hours.
Most polls in Georgia are set to close at 7 p.m. ET.
Most of the polls in the state closed at 6 p.m. ET, including in the 4th District where U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie is up against Ed Gallrein in the Republican primary that’s garnered national attention.
The president picked Gallrein to compete against Massie, who’s frustrated Trump partly by pushing for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Western Kentucky is in the Central Time Zone and polls there close at 7 p.m. ET.
Five of Oregon’s six congressional districts are held by Democrats.
Its 5th District, considered the most competitive, was flipped by Republicans for the first time in decades in 2022 but reclaimed by Democrats in 2024. The district stretches from southern Portland across the Cascade Range to Bend.
The incumbent, Democratic Rep. Janelle Bynum, is running against a primary opponent who has not reported raising any money.
Two candidates, a county commissioner and a political consultant, are running in the district’s GOP primary in the hope of trying to win the seat back for Republicans in November.
Both Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro and Republican Stacy Garrity are running unopposed in their primaries.
Shapiro is heavily favored to win reelection this fall over Garrity, the state treasurer.
Republicans acknowledge Shapiro’s electoral strength, and may hope that Garrity can at least make it a close contest to help protect the party’s other candidates on the ballot in contests for Congress and the state Legislature.
Tuberville could face former U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, a Democrat, if both men secure their parties’ nominations.
The two last competed in the 2020 Senate race, when Tuberville easily defeated Jones, who was then the incumbent. Tuberville was boosted by a Trump endorsement and his high profile from his years as a football coach.
Jones, a former U.S. attorney, won a 2017 special election for U.S. Senate over Republican Roy Moore. Jones remains the last Democrat to win a statewide race in Alabama.
When Geoff Duncan was Georgia’s lieutenant governor, he resisted Trump’s efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the state in 2020. He’s since left the Republican Party, and he’s running for governor as a Democrat.
His campaign has involved a lot of apologizing to win over voters who may be turned off by his previously conservative positions.
It’s an interesting example of how traditional partisan lines have been scrambled since Trump rose to power a decade ago. Many Republicans who have crossed the president have retired or been defeated in primaries. Only a few of them have attempted to switch parties like Duncan.
Incumbent Tina Kotek is expected to win the Democratic primary and advance to November’s general election.
Elected to her first term as governor in 2022 after years in the Legislature, Kotek pledged to tackle homelessness, mental health and education. Despite approving funding and programs aimed at those issues, the state has continued to see rising homelessness and flagging student test scores that have failed to return to pre-pandemic levels.
Kotek also has sparred with the Trump administration, which sought to deploy the National Guard to Portland last fall during its immigration crackdown for the stated purpose of protecting federal property and personnel.
After the state and city sued to block the deployment, a federal judge found that protests at Portland’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building didn’t meet the conditions for using the military domestically under federal law.
The president supported an opponent to Massie, just as he has done elsewhere.
On May 5, several Indiana state senators who defied Trump on redistricting lost their primaries to candidates backed by the president.
On May 16, Sen. Bill Cassidy lost his primary in Louisiana. Rep. Julia Letlow, who Trump endorsed, and state Treasurer John Fleming will compete in a runoff.
Cassidy had voted to convict Trump during an impeachment trial over the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Massie angered Trump by voting against his signature tax legislation over concerns of adding to the national debt, pushing for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files and opposing his decision to go to war with Iran.
His positions, Massie insists, reflect the America First promises Trump initially made on the campaign trail.
In a Kentucky district where the president won by 35 points two years ago, Massie told The Associated Press that this primary is “by far the most challenging reelection I’ve ever faced.”
Voters have sent Massie back to Congress ever since his first election in 2012, embracing his stalwart independence and jaunty personality. Back in 2020, they brushed off Trump’s social media demand to throw Massie out of the Republican Party because he was a “third rate Grandstander.”
Their names may seem familiar.
The Democratic field in Kentucky includes former state lawmaker Charles Booker and former Marine pilot Amy McGrath. McGrath beat Booker and several other candidates in the 2020 Democratic primary to face McConnell.
Democrats have not won a U.S. Senate race in Kentucky since 1992.
Pennsylvania’s governor is also a potential 2028 presidential candidate. With his own primary uncontested, he’s been spending money and support on Democrats running for U.S. House and the state Legislature.
Shapiro is on track to break his own campaign spending record and, in a step to help races up and down the ballot, has plunged more than $900,000 so far this election cycle into the state Democratic Party’s accounts.
The election year is an opportunity for Shapiro to show his political strength in a premier battleground state should he decide to run for president in 2028.
U.S. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Delaware, said Trump is continuing a “campaign of retribution” against his political enemies.
He suggested that the latest example is Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth campaigning — “during a war” — against U.S. Rep. Tom Massie ahead of Kentucky’s primary on Tuesday.
“That continues to prevent Republicans from having the courage to speak out on matters of principle, which I think is putting all of us at risk,” Coons told reporters in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday.
Massie angered Trump by opposing his signature tax legislation over concerns about the national debt, pushing for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files and opposing his decision to go to war with Iran.
They are being asked whether to approve a 6-cent-a-gallon gas tax increase passed by the Democratic-controlled Legislature last fall.
They’ve been casting ballots as prices at the pump have skyrocketed because of the war with Iran.
Democrats increased the tax and other fees to help pay for road improvements and plug a hole in the state’s transportation budget. Republicans responded by launching a successful referendum campaign to refer the tax and fee increases to the ballot, saying they drive the cost of living even higher.
Democrats say the main cause of skyrocketing gas prices is Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran. But they’ve acknowledged the difficult timing of the ballot measure, which has also complicated national Democrats’ affordability messaging in midterm campaigning.
Kentucky will release the first results of the night.
In the 2024 primaries, the AP reported the first Kentucky votes six minutes after most polls closed at 6 p.m. ET. The last vote update of the night was at 9:47 p.m.
Georgia will be next, with polls closing at 7 p.m. ET. In the 2022 state primaries, results were available at 13 minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 3:29 a.m.
Polls in Alabama and Pennsylvania close at 8 p.m. ET, and both states started releasing votes at roughly the same time in the 2024 primaries — at 8:01 p.m. and 8:03 p.m., respectively. Both stopped counting for the night around 2 a.m.
Idaho and Oregon are expected to begin releasing votes just as voting concludes at 11 p.m. ET. In their last state primaries, Oregon began releasing votes right at 11 p.m. and Idaho at 11:09 p.m. Idaho’s last update of the night was at 4:51 a.m., while Oregon’s last update was at 5:11 a.m.
A sign directs voters arriving to vote in the Georgia primary elections on Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro walk to speaks with members of the media outside his polling place in Rydal, Pa., Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
A person walks outside a polling place in Philadelphia, Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Richard Cullom leaves a voting center after voting, Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in Marietta, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
