IndyCar unfairly criticized despite making the obvious correct call

When Conor Daly crashed out of the most recent IndyCar race at Portland International Raceway following contact from Christian Rasmussen in the fastest corner of the race track two weekends ago, fans were fuming.

Rasmussen and Daly had come together several times over the previous laps, and on the surface, Daly's heavy contact with the tire barrier appeared to have been started with Rasmussen getting fed up with him and driving into the side of him in turn 10 of the 12-turn, 1.967-mile (3.166-kilometer) natural terrain road course in Portland, Oregon.

Some were calling for Rasmussen to be parked. Others called for him to be suspended. Others called for him to be benched for the remainder of the season.

IndyCar did nothing. And yes, they made the right call.

First things first: yes, Rasmussen should have been penalized for running Daly off the road in the first place, simply because of how it happened. That's how the whole situation started, and Rasmussen even owned that after the race.

But IndyCar, as much as we might not like it, opted for consistency, and given the fact that similar incidents have not been flagged, they opted to let it fly.

And after that, Daly literally did it to himself.

He spent the whole next lap trying to slam into Rasmussen's car, and when they got to the fastest corner on the race track, he totally crowded him on the outside, to the point where neither driver had anywhere to go without contact.

With Daly on the outside, he was obviously the one more at risk of disaster. And disaster struck.

IndyCar would have been insane to penalize Rasmussen at that point. Daly was asking for trouble, and he got exactly what he was asking for.

Obviously still frustrated, he vented about it afterward on Twitter.

"Purposefully wrecking someone in a 150 mph corner is just pure insanity"; that much is true. But Rasmussen obviously didn't "purposefully wreck" Daly.

Daly let a minor incident corrupt his mind during this race, and that's what cost him. He was his own worst enemy, and I would hope that he can look back and see that two weeks later.

Instead of simply taking one on the chin and actually focusing on the race after Rasmussen wronged him the first time, he let his temper get the best of him.

A similar incident unfolded at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Daly was justifiably upset when Ferrucci ran him off the road in almost an identical manner: Daly on the outside, Ferrucci on the inside, and Ferrucci running himself off the road in the process of trying to keep Daly behind him.

Again, it probably should have been called. But then Daly seemingly brake checked him as the two were coming into the pits.

I don't blame him for being upset at these incidents. I don't. But the outrage over IndyCar not penalizing Rasmussen for Daly's eventual wreck was entirely overblown. Daly failed to let cooler heads prevail, and it cost him, and for as much as we criticize series officiating, they absolutely made the right no-call following this collision.

Of course, that's not to say improvements can't be made. This was obviously a volatile situation from the start, and Daly not letting up on Rasmussen the entire following lap after the initial incident only made it more so.

But IndyCar's policy in those instances is not to intervene. Should that change?

Daly apparently seems to think so. But that still would have required him to cool off after the first run-in, and I don't think there was ever any chance of that happening, unless maybe if IndyCar penalized Rasmussen within five seconds of coming back onto the race track.

I also don't think it's bold to suggest that, had roles been reversed, the IndyCar fanbase's reaction would have been entirely different. Hating on Ferrucci and Rasmussen has become such low-hanging fruit it's comical, and when it's someone like Daly, who has a massive following off the race track through social media and his podcast, that vitriol is going to spread like wildfire.

Ferrucci has been one of the sport's most hated drivers since he debuted in 2018, given his checkered past in Europe, and Rasmussen's aggressive driving style has had everyone on the edge of their seats. Yet even after so many near-misses, IndyCar's "ticking time bomb" still hasn't actually gone off.

So of course when a fan-favorite in Daly, who at one point called Ferrucci a "psychopath", calls them out, and after two sketchy incidents, everyone is going to take his side.

I have also defended Daly his entire career, and it's a shame he still hasn't won a race, because he has lifted several of the sport's smaller teams to places that other drivers either wouldn't have been able to or wouldn't have had the patience to be able to.

A podium finish in his second oval race with his current team, and as a replacement driver, is no easy feat, yet he pulled it off. Aside from the race track, he has connected with the mainstream sports fan in ways that other drivers really haven't been able to achieve.

But come on. He was never the victim here, and for as much as IndyCar's fanbase loves him, this might have been the single most overblown reaction to any kind of "controversy" all year. One misjudged corner from Rasmussen led to an unnecessary escalation on Daly's side, and that led to more unnecessary escalation, and eventually, Daly paid for it.

Rasmussen not paying for it was not the issue you were supposed to think it was.

Even the IndyCar on Fox team walked back some of their Portland comments during practice for the Milwaukee race on Saturday, because they had actually had the opportunity to look at all the camera angles, all the data, all the telemetry, etc.

And no, they weren't just covering for the series; they were among the first to call out the sheer stupidity of race control not throwing a caution for Marcus Ericsson at Laguna Seca last month. They call it like they see it, as they should, and at first, they, too, questioned IndyCar's decision not to penalize Rasmussen.

But Rasmussen didn't "purposefully wreck" Daly in the fastest corner on the race track, and to even promote that theory without evidence was laughable.

And it's a good thing IndyCar saw right through it, even if the fanbase wanted to think otherwise.