It’s a good thing we’re still in April.
After a tangle heading to the start of Sunday’s IndyCar race at Barber Motorsports Park, it’s questionable if Mikhail Aleshin, Carlos Munoz and Jack Hawksworth will be sending Christmas cards to each other this year.
The three drivers were involved in a wreck heading to the green flag to start Sunday’s Honda Grand Prix of Alabama.
And of course, what manifested itself was a he said, he said and he said analogy that left observers still wondering who did what and who caused it.
For those of you who missed it, Munoz got into the rear of Aleshin’s race car. Hawksworth missed contact but was forced off-track to avoid becoming part of the incident.
First, let’s hear from Aleshin on Munoz:
“That’s what happens when someone doesn’t use their brain,” Aleshin said. “The rest of the race was bad because I got hit in the back of the car at the start and then someone hit me on my front wheel. The car was completely unbalanced after that. Something was bent, so the job was done before it even started.”
Aleshin finished 17th and Hawksworth was 19th. Munoz didn’t end up much better, finishing 14th, yet had a completely different perspective on what happened in the early wreck:
“On the first start everyone started to pack up and brake,” Munoz said. “I couldn’t avoid hitting Aleshin. They put us in the back of the grid, that didn’t help at all. After that the rest of the race had no yellows, and with no yellows it’s hard to move to the front or do any strategy, so it is what it is.”
Hawksworth was somewhat more diplomatic in his thoughts about the early incident, not laying blame upon either driver:
“We didn’t get a good start because (Aleshin got hit (by Munoz) and spun in front of us and I had to go off-track to miss him,” Hawksworth said. “They sent all of us to the back.”
It was the start of what would become a bad day for Hawksworth, who made contact with Aleshin late in the race and, as Hawksworth said, “That was it.”
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