The Indianapolis 500 open test is in the books, and one of the most-talked-about moments from it had nothing to do with a driver topping the time sheet and everything to do with him accidentally smoking some poor bird with his car.
And — I hope you’re sitting down for this — PETA is not happy about it.
On Tuesday, Dale Coyne Racing’s Romain Grosjean was traveling at 230 mph when his No. 18 Honda had a run-in with a bird that splattered it and Grosjean with every bit of goop that can be packed into a small bird’s body.
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Afterward, Grosjean laughed off the unfortunate incident, which could’ve been catastrophic had it not been for the Aeroscreen that IndyCar uses to protect the cockpit.
“I still have blood on my race suit; there were pieces of the bird on the rollbar. I couldn’t see where I was going anymore; there’s plenty on the aeroscreen,” he said. “The helmet stinks, the seat stinks. I didn’t get any chicken for lunch; I just walked past it.”
Grosjean has had his share of scary moments, most notably a horrific, fiery crash in the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix when racing for the Haas F1 Team.
He handled the aftermath of that with a similar brand of humor, but that’s what PETA wasn’t happy about.
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“Birds have feelings, apparently more than Grosjean does, considering that he seemed more concerned with his car, helmet, and suit — all replaceable — than the smash-up of this unsuspecting bird,” PETA senior vice president Mimi Bekhechi said in a statement to Reuters.
Relax, Mimi…
Also, let’s be real here. You’ve got to kind of put some blame on the bird that thought the best place to hang out on Tuesday in Indianapolis was in the middle of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with 33 cars on track.
No one is happy that a bird got clobbered by an IndyCar. I think the reaction was more of relief that nothing bad happened because a bird strike at that speed can be dangerous.
And I think we’d all be pretty bummed if our race suits and helmets got covered in bird guts.
PETA always has to come, get their attention and then move on to whining about college football mascots that are treated better than a large percentage of humans on Earth.
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However, the bird strike was not the only animal incident from the two-day test.
The second day of running was briefly interrupted by a caution that came out because a fox wandered onto the track.