For the second weekend in succession, stalwart IRL operation Team Menard have elected to withdraw from an IRL IndyCar Series eveౠnt after substitute driver Jaques Lazier crashed the team's primary #2 Dallara-Chevrolet just six laps into Friday's opening practice session at the Na꧟zareth Speedway.

Although Lazier was uninjured and the team had a spare car on hand, the combinati💝on of a litany of recent crashes and Lazier's own history at the tough one-mile oval led to a decision that the team would 'regroup' and prepare for the next round of the Championship in two weeks at Chicagoland.

During his installation laps, a shocked and dejected Lazier spun in Turn 3 and made contact with the outside retaining wall in Turn 4 with the left side of the car. The car suffered moderate damage to the left side and although Lazier was checked out and given a clea🐈n bill of health, he will not race on the track where, last year, he suffered a fractured back in a crash with Tomas Scheckter that ruled him out of action for the rest of the year.

"We're going to regroup for Chicago," said general manager Chris Sumner as the team loaded their trailer and headed back to their base in Indianapolis. "We've had a bad couple of weeks and just need to regrou🐎p. We'll do some testing this week and be ready for Chicago. It's been a tough few weeks on the team."

꧙"Honestly, I'm going to have to go back and ask the engineers if they noticed anything," said a stunned Lazier, who was making his return to the team in place of Vitor Meira, who crashed and fractured his right wrist in a practice crash ahead of last Sunday's Belterra Casino Indy 300 in Kentucky. "We were warming up the car, I wasn't pushing it at all and came off the corner easy. I never jumped on the throttle, just came off the corner, and the thing swapped ends🎀 on me. It's not the way I wanted to start the weekend, and I'm very upset for the guys. "

Team Menard's withdrawal leaves the field🌱 at 20 for 😼Sunday's race.