Sebastien Bourdais undergoes pelvis surgery after Indy crash

IndyCar driver Sebastien Bourdais underwent successful surgery Saturday night to repair a fractured pelvis after his car slammed into a barrier in a fiery crash while attempting to qualify for the 101st running of the Indianapolis 500.

The owner of Dale Coyne Racing confirmed Sunday that Bourdais will miss the remainder of the season.

Bourdais was on the third lap of his qualification run when his car slammed head-on into the SAFER barrier in turn two and lost control, flipping over as flames shot out from under the chassis. It took the safety crew about 10 minutes to get the 38-year-old Frenchman out of his car.

The Dale Coyne Racing driver had completed two laps of his qualifying run on Saturday with an average speed of 231.534 mph, the fastest laps of the day for next Sunday's race.

Bourdais was transported by ambulance from the track to Indiana University Health Methodist Hospital. Track officials said he never lost consciousness.

"Surgery went well," IndyCar medical director Dr. Geoffrey Billows said in a statement Sunday. "I've met with Sebastien this morning and he was doing even better than I expected."

Bourdais sustained multiple fractures to his pelvis and a fracture to his right hip.

"That was great news," Coyne told Motorsport.com of the surgery, "because they had expected it to involve two separate operations. He's a strong guy, very fit. That helps. IndyCar flew Claire (Bourdais' wife) in last night, so that was great.

"Sebastien came out of surgery at 10.40, and about 20 minutes later his surgeon came down and told us it had gone really well."

Coyne said he will find a replacement for Bourdais, who signed with Dale Coyne Racing after three seasons at KV Racing. Bourdais raced in Formula One in 2008-09 and is sixth on IndyCar's career victory list with 35.

"We're told he's going to be six to eight weeks on crutches and then there's rehab," Coyne said. "So yeah, that's it for the season."

The final day of qualifying for the 33-car starting grid was set for Sunday. Ed Carpenter posted the fastest qualifying time Saturday with a four-lap average of 230.468 mph. Takuma Sato was second at 230.382, while Scott Dixon was third at 230.333.