The Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear Corporation was the lone doubleheader event of the 2018 IndyCar Series season, consisting of the 7th and 8th rounds of the championship.

During the opening pace laps of Race #2, the 2019 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 pace car leading the field and being driven by General Motors executive Mark Reuss lost control and crashed head-on into the left-hand retaining wall coming out of the exit of turn two of the track, shortly after leaving pit road.

Rossi, who was to start the race from the pole position and was directly behind the pace car when the incident occurred, was the only driver to drive past the crash and returned to pit road afterwards.

An official statement from General Motors, of which Chevrolet is a division of, read in part, "It is unfortunate that this incident happened.

"[2] Reuss, who had previous experience driving high powered cars in his tenure at General Motors, posted his own statement onto his Facebook page apologizing for the mishap: "I have driven this course many many many times.

Nearly one year after the crash, Reuss was given the opportunity to drive the pace car for the opening laps of the 2019 edition of the race, this time doing so without incident.