Update: Before I get into today’s topic, I promised on Wednesday that I would give an update on my wife Susan. She is still hospitalized. Her fever has gone down, but has not subsided. Scans showed that the abscessed liver is looking fine, but the scans also showed traces of pneumonia in her lungs. They did an entire respiratory panel for everything under the sun, including COVID, and everything was negative – so the doctors are sort of scratching their collective heads. As of Thursday night, it does not appear that she will be coming home for the weekend (update: she did). – GP
You have heard my discontent with some of the posts in the various IndyCar-related Facebook groups. There seems to be a lot of whining combined with some rather outlandish ideas. Sunday night, while we were still in Wisconsin – I saw a post on one of them (and I cannot remember which one it was) that I thought was ridiculous. It concerned an incident after Sunday’s race. Oddly enough, I found myself in the minority – so I wanted to pose the issue here to see what you thought.
Keep in mind, when I first saw the Facebook post – I had not seen any replays at all from the race. It wasn’t until Wednesday night that I saw the replay in question. After I saw it, I was convinced that the post in question was even more absurd.
I’m talking about the retaliation on the cool-down lap from Will Power toward Devlin DeFrancesco. If you recall, DeFrancesco got into the back of Will Power on Lap Eight, in Turn Five – spinning the points leader around 180° and damaging his front wing. Power had not qualified well, but that’s not unusual. He started at Belle Isle in sixteenth and won the race, so who’s to say the same thing wouldn’t happen a week later at Road America? I’m not sure Power had anything for Josef Newgarden, Marcus Ericsson or Alexander Rossi, but I think he could have had himself a decent day. Instead, another rookie mistake by DeFrancesco put Power at the back of the field and he ended up with a nineteenth-place finish – one spot behind DeFrancesco.
Power vented his frustrations on the cool-down with a basic hip-check, just getting his point across to the rookie that his actions weren’t acceptable.
The aforementioned Facebook post (I’m paraphrasing, because now I can’t find it to quote) said that while Power had every right to be angry, it was completely unacceptable for him to retaliate on the track and that he should be suspended for the next race, at least. Seriously?
Keep in mind, I’m not necessarily condoning Power’s actions – but I found it more comical, than offensive, egregious or dangerous.
But even if I’m an IndyCar official, the possibility of suspending Power is not even entering my mind. It makes no difference if he was the points leader going into the race, or he was sitting twenty-third in points (where Devlin DeFrancesco happens to be sitting. This was not a suspendable offense in my mind. It wouldn’t surprise me if there is a small monetary fine or if Power just got a slap on the wrist. But suspension? Please.
What surprised me was how many people agreed with whoever put this post up. I’ll bet the responses in favor of suspending Power for a race, were more than the majority. Am I missing something here? Is there something wrong with me, that I chuckled when I saw Power retaliate rather than getting outraged? Or is the person who posted this one of those who gets outraged over everything and he had his buddies chime in to support him.
Please let me hear from you. I’d really like to know if I am not looking at things the right way, or if this person is in the vast minority.
George Phillips
Please Note: I had already planned on taking a break for this Monday, since it is Father’s Day weekend. However, given all that I have going on with Susan, plus the fact I have been on the road for four out of the past five weekends traveling to races – there is a lot that needs doing around the house, and I’m sort of worn out. Therefore, with no IndyCar racing for the next three weekends, I am going to take all of next week off. I will return here on Monday June 27. Hopefully I will have some good news to report on Susan then, as well. – GP
Oilpressure 