"Purposefully wrecking someone in a 150mph corner is just pure insanity. That’s not racing. It’s inexcusable. The driving standards, for some, are a joke right now. That means you [Christian Rasmussen]."
It’s safe to say Conor Daly was not happy with the spectacular crash that ended his Portland IndyCar race, which he blamed on Christian Rasmussen.
Rasmussen - the 2023 Indy NXT champion - certainly is aggressive in his wheel-to-wheel combat and hasn’t always made friends with the way he’s approached his racecraft, especially on ovals. Although, asked about that by The Race earlier this year he pointed out he’d had no penalties and other drivers had done stuff he didn’t agree with either.
However, it’s hard to apportion much blame to Daly here.
SCARY INCIDENT FOR CONOR DALY! ? pic.twitter.com/pgpgnMtqQ0
Initially, Daly is angry after Rasmussen causes a collision at Turn 7, and then Daly veers across the track towards him as if threatening him with his car, which certainly isn’t wise or advisable but we’ve seen that happen before. This started with Rasmussen.
“He [Rasmussen] just drives him [Daly] off,” assessed TV commentator James Hinchcliffe. “Totally uncalled for.”
Hinchcliffe later added “let’s call a spade a spade here, Rasmussen’s not made a ton of friends this year in terms of the passing he’s pulled off”.
Rasmussen accepted the blame for that first incident.
“I agree, that was on me,” he said. “I picked up understeer, and my wheel touched his floor in a weird way, which knocked the steering wheel out of my hands. That's on me. That's my fault.”
It’s clear in the following lap or so that Daly’s not happy with Rasmussen and then attacks at the fastest corner of the track, Turn 10, where Rasmussen clips Daly’s left-rear and Daly careers over the run-off into the tyre wall at high speed.
“It felt like that has been coming for a lap, a lap and a half” said Will Buxton, IndyCar’s TV commentator, who was critical of the decision not to penalise Rasmussen in the aftermath.
Not entirely sure I agreed with some of the calls today however. I love the punchiness of Indycar racing but not a fan of running racers out of road or any notion of “an eye for an eye.” Penalties for blocking or spinning a rival but not for escalating, race ending red mist? Odd.
Daly said on the radio “Rasmussen just wrecked us, sorry about that”, and looking at the helicopter shot it is hard to disagree because Daly is almost a whole car ahead. Neither driver wanted to cede ground to the other.
“For me, that looked like Conor’s corner,” added Fox’s Towsend Bell.
A team member on Rasmussen’s radio accused Daly, saying he “ran out of talent”.
“I don’t know what he expected me to do there,” added Rasmussen.
Later he doubled down on that stance that Daly should have backed off.
“I think that’s what you can expect when you try to roll the outside in a corner like that,” Rasmussen said. “He was driving up into the back of me and then trying to overtake me into Turn 10, which, obviously, others lifted.”
Purposefully wrecking someone in a 150mph corner is just pure insanity. That’s not racing. It’s inexcusable. The driving standards, for some, are a joke right now. That means you @ChristianR_DK #indycar
Despite this being a fairly obvious call, and that Daly was smashed into the tyre barriers at what he claims was around 150mph, IndyCar did not punish Rasmussen and he was able to continue without penalty.
Ironically Rasmussen was on Daly's podcast recently talking about drivers likely getting their elbows out over the last three races and racing aggressively.
It’s elbows out racing from here on out. ?
Don't miss this week's Speed Street with Christian Rasmussen, out now! ?
Spotify: https://t.co/aGzrzQFtb7
Apple: https://t.co/wBxt3Leydc
YouTube: https://t.co/qY8gPeH0w5@ConorDaly22 | @SpeedStreetPod | @GarageGuyChase pic.twitter.com/MEnHL8K8nH
It again raises the question of current driving standards in IndyCar and the feeling that drivers are given too much power to make risky moves that impact others and get away with it.
Daly especially has reason to be upset. He was shoved off by Santino Ferrucci at Mid-Ohio and again at Laguna Seca recently - although the latter was less clear cut in terms of who was to blame with Robert Shwartzman seemingly unsighted on the outside.