Ben Spies out of Indy MotoGP

American Ben Spies, who was making a long-awaited return to MotoGP racing at this weekend's Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix, has ruled himself out of the Indy race due to suffering a grade-three separation of his left shoulder after crashing in Turn Four during the Saturday morning practice. Spies' right shoulder—which forced him to miss three months of the season due to damage suffered in a crash at Sepang last year that required surgery—was apparently uninjured. Although he will see doctors on Monday to determine his recovery period, the severity of the separation of his left shoulder will likely mean the Texan will be out of action for at least three-four weeks at a minimum.

Spies raced in the opening Qatar MotoGP race of 2013, but pulled out of the inaugural Circuit of the Americas race in Texas after he realized during practice that his right shoulder wasn't healed enough from the surgery. Intense pain forced Spies to eventually pull out of the COTA race, and he was eventually forced to sit out the following Jerez race in order to undergo intensive rehabilitation in an attempt to get his shoulder strong enough to ride. Spies missed a total of seven races before returning to competition this weekend.