INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Romain Grosjean used some humor — and cited his Swiss roots — to punch back at his feud with Marcus Armstrong on Thursday.
Hey, it's worth a shot.
Grosjean insisted he never intended to fight Armstrong when he said he wanted to hit him during a post-race dust-up on pit lane after the two IndyCar drivers collided during the Indianapolis Grand Prix. Instead, Grosjean called Saturday's clash a misunderstanding in the heat of the moment.
“I'm Swiss," he said when asked if he'd ever punched someone. "I think the whole thing got misinterpreted because some people that had no right to be involved got involved. Marcus crashed into me, got a drive through (penalty) for it, and it ruined my race. It was a top five easy, if not better. So we had the discussion, and I said, ‘I want to punch you,’ like as a joke, and that’s when mechanics got involved and started pushing me back. All I wanted was to speak with Marcus.”
But when Grosjean started yelling at Armstrong, his Meyer Shank Racing team members tried to deescalate the situation by stepping between the drivers.
Armstrong still seemed taken aback when he spoke with reporters Tuesday, saying he only wanted to address it one time.
Armstrong acknowledged he'd “dive-bombed” Grosjean's car on the speedway's 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course and suspected Grosjean might be upset by what Armstrong called a clean move. He still seemed surprised someone he considers a friend confronted him in that manner, which caused an unnecessary distraction with this season's biggest race looming on May 24.
So Armstrong made light of the situation, too.
“I'm thinking about taking up boxing,” he joked. “But in all seriousness, it's not a problem. We just had a bit of a kerfuffle on track. We kind of made contact and I was fully up alongside him and we made contact, which happens in IndyCar racing, and afterward, he was pretty angry.”
Grosjean's frustration is understandable.
The former Formula One driver switched to IndyCars in 2021 and made the podium six times in his first three seasons, including a career-best second four times. He hasn't been in the top three since.
Last year, he made no starts as a reserve driver for Prema Racing, which captured the Indianapolis 500 pole with Robert Shwartzman. This year, Grosjean has started all six races with Dale Coyne Racing with his best finish, eighth, coming in IndyCar's season opener. He's had just one top-20 finish in the last five races and wound up 21st courtesy of Saturday's crash.
“As I say, it’s past. I would have just liked (Armstrong to say) ‘I apologize, made a mistake. Better drive through. Sorry, I ruined your day.’ End of the story.”
But the ramifications haven't appeared to linger during this week's practices. Grosjean and Armstrong each seem more concerned with finding speed and preparing for the turbocharged boost of power they'll get Friday, the final practice before this weekend's two qualifying sessions.
Then they'll focus on getting ready for the 500 on May 24 and perhaps the drama of this episode will be forgiven, forgotten and neutralized.
“We're not saving the world, we're entertaining," said Grosjean, who also hit a bird in open testing on Indianapolis Motor Speedway's 2.5-mile oval in late April. “We are passionate. We do things that we're very lucky to do. But if there's no emotion in sports, what's the point of sports?”
___
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
