As they zoomed past what appeared to be a lifeless body lying inches above the racing surface at Barber Motorsports Park, the IndyCar drivers remained calm.
After all, it was just “Georgina”: the female mannequin hanging along a long straight line from a pedestrian bridge on the 2.3-mile course near Birmingham, Alabama.
But Scott McLaughlin might have had different emotions if her unexpected fall on the track’s pristine grass had somehow disrupted the Team Penske driver’s victory Sunday.
IndyCar at Barber: Scott McLaughlin wins; Will Power finishes second for Penske after the push-to-pass scandal
It’s a 1-2 win for the team, four days after huge penalties and disqualifications in the season opener.
“I was a little angry,” McLaughlin said with a laugh in response to a question from NBC Sports about how it felt to drive past the dummy. “Then I realized someone else had hit the fence. That’s not what the yellow was for. I like artistic things, but it probably doesn’t have to be above the track to cause a yellow like that. That’s probably what Will happen next year might change.”
There was no yellow as Georgina broke free from her moorings and stuck the landing before toppling over just as Santino Ferrucci’s No. 14 Dallara-Chevrolet entered the track at full speed. But she was removed when a caution flag flew three laps later due to a crash by Sting Ray Robb.
Runner-up Will Power initially thought the yellow was for Georgina.
“Yellow comes out and there’s a queen on the side,” he said. ‘You are joking. Is there yellow for that lady? That would have been funny if it had gotten into someone’s cockpit. “There’s a lady attacking me!” “
Since Georgina is one of several crazy props placed on the track by management, McLaughlin and Power immediately recognized Georgina (and not an actual human being in distress).
“I knew exactly what it was,” Power said. “They will seriously have to get good cables (in the future). Has anyone run over them?”
IndyCar Barber Points, Results: Team Penske Earns Redemptive 1-2 With Scott McLaughlin, Will Power
A dominant performance caps off a redemptive weekend for a controversial team.
No, but it looked like Ferrucci bit one of her hands.
“Should be in a glass case,” Power said. ‘Save the body. Mummify it!’
A slightly less jovial McLaughlin said he “thought it was just a matter of time” before Georgina finally broke free from the bridge.
While he loves Barber Motorsports Park (“Probably my favorite road course in America”) and appreciated track owner George Barber’s wacky sense of humor (“it’s just a fun track”), the Team Penske driver added, ” Yeah, if I lost to that, against a lady who fell off… that’s all I’m saying.
‘It was a mannequin. It wasn’t a real person.’
According to a 2022 story by NBC Sports contributor Bruce Martintrack owner George Barber has commissioned the artwork of wild animals, an iconic overspided spider (nicknamed “Charlotte’s Web”), Martians, “a zombie Frenchman”, a mini Bigfoot and “Henry the Monkey” (hanging from a billboard on top of the scoring post).
They are known as “George’s Critters”, and Barber was inspired to use them because he felt his song was unfairly criticized by environmentalists when it opened.
“They called us in the middle of the night and started arguing,” Barber told Martin two years ago. ‘It was unbelievable what they did to my people and me.
“So I got the bugs and the spiders and the different things around and I called the press. I said, ‘Look here, my God, the spiders and the bugs and the animals, they were drinking this water around here and watching what happened to them. This is terrible.’ Boy, they played it big and they really did us justice. The environmentalists saw this and withdrew. We’ve got our mojo back; we regained our courage and completed the project.”
