re: 2022 IndyCar Season Thread - Last Race: Laguna Seca 9/11 3:00 PM ET (NBC)

OMG Grosjean doing Grosjean things in Practice 2. He was on a hot lap, but came upon a group of four cars on an out lap trying to space themselves out. Grosjean had plenty of visibility on the straight to see them but let off the throttle too late, braked as hard as he could, but plowed hard into Sato. Grosjean limped back to the pits but Sato's rear end was too damaged and he came to a stop. That was a bad enough incident that Grosjean should get a penalty.

Edit: the twitter responses to this incident are hilariously varied.

1. IndyCar needs to change the rules to avoid cars piling up on their out laps. (Fair comment, but blame still needs to be assigned for this incident.)

2. Must be Grosjean's fault because he has always been reckless.

3. Must be Sato's fault because he has always been reckless.

4. Grosjean's spotter should have warned him about the slow cars.

5. The spotters for all the slow cars should have told them to get out of the way.

I think the key here is that there were four slow cars in a bunch, going around the corner (the first two cars) and entering the corner (Sato and the 4th car) when Grosjean caught up to them. It was unfortunate timing, but with that many slow cars, Grosjean should have given up his fast lap. Even if you blame a spotter for the incident occurring, it's the driver that gets punished, if warranted. I'm curious to see if any punishment is doled out for this incident.