Drivers letting emotions take over on track

Associated Press

LEXINGTON, Ohio

Consider it road rage at the major league level.

IndyCar has been hit by a rash of on-track aggression not usually seen in open-wheel racing, with drivers trading paint in their million-dollar rides followed post-race by the typical finger-pointing and hard feelings, snide remarks and casual threats, deprecating comments and public complaining.

It got so bad that series officials took action.

Last week IndyCar put drivers Mike Conway, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Alex Tagliani on probation through the end of the year for “multiple instances of initiating avoidable contact during IndyCar Series events this season.”

How bad was it? Listen to Dario Franchitti at Mid-Ohio last weekend, referring to the numerous skirmishes at the Toronto race: “There was so much contact. At one point they were saying there was only one car that didn’t have any contact. They were saying [driver Scott Dixon] didn’t have any contact and then they asked him and he said, ‘I had four.’ Everybody had contact.”

That prompted series officials to step in before IndyCar became demolition derby with state-of-the-art projectiles.

“We are disappointed in these actions, which have exhibited a pattern of driving that endangers on-track safety and adversely affects competition,” said Brian Barnhart, IndyCar’s president of competition and operations.

According to IndyCar, Conway purposely ran into Ryan Briscoe’s car at Toronto and Oriol Servia’s at Edmonton. Hunter-Reay hit Briscoe’s at Barber and Takuma Sato’s at Edmonton. Tagliani did not avoid contact with Will Power at Toronto and Graham Rahal at Edmonton.

Some have seen the lighter side of the incidents, which have mostly occurred on the circuit’s road courses. Hunter-Reay finished third in high heat and humidity at Mid-Ohio. Speaking after the race, he tossed in a reference to his discipline.

“It was a good day apart from the drink bottle not working in the car,” he said, adding, “which I think was part of my probation.”

Part of the problem might be that people accustomed to going fast, who have high RPMs in their DNA, don’t take kindly to others who they don’t believe know what they’re doing at 120 mph. Tempers flare.

“It doesn’t take much in these cars,” said Dixon, who won at Mid-Ohio. “With the competition level so high at the moment, everybody is trying to gain a position here and there. You’ve got to stretch it a little bit to pull that off.”