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Colton Herta, Scott McLaughlin avoid crash while dodging photo opportunity

INDIANAPOLIS -- A photo opportunity for the Rahal Letterman Lanigan team caused the first hiccup in preparations for the Indianapolis 500 when Colton Herta and Scott McLaughlin nearly crashed Thursday.

The track opened as scheduled for practice, and defending race winner Takuma Sato slowed alongside Indy 500 teammates Graham Rahal and Santino Ferrucci for a three-wide photo opportunity on the frontstretch.

McLaughlin saw the three RLL cars had slowed to a crawl ahead of him and adjusted his speed as he drove through the fourth turn. But Herta was unaware and had to quickly dive inside of McLaughlin alongside the wall to avoid a full collision.