IndyCar driver Romain Grosjean gives stomach-churning details about hitting a bird during Indy 500 test

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It’s not even May yet, but we’ve got IndyCars on track at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in preparation for the Indianapolis 500.

What a time to be alive.

However, the day did not go quite according to plan for Dale Coyne Racing’s Romain Grosjean, and that was all thanks to an unfortunate run-in — in the most literal sense imaginable — with a bird.

The two-day open test features all 33 cars currently in the field (which means no one is getting bumped at the moment; I know, I’m bummed too), and it’s the first taste of running teams and drivers get before the true practice sessions on the oval begin on May 12.

But on day one, Grosjean wound up with a slight delay after his car struck a bird while he was traveling at around 230 mph.

Now, I’m sure you can work out the math on Grosjean’s No. 18 Honda Randy Johnson-ing some poor bird at full speed, but it was messy.

As RACER’s Marshall Pruett mentioned in his tweet, this was yet another example of why the Aeroscreen is one of the best things IndyCar has ever introduced.

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With it, this is just kind of an odd, unfortunate (especially for the bird) story.

Without it, that could’ve been a very serious incident.

While he was out of the car, Grosjean — a former F1 driver for Lotus, Renault and Haas, Renault, and Haas who previously raced for Juncos Hollinger Racing and Andretti Global in IndyCar — talked about what happened.

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“That was not ideal,” Grosjean said. “I still have blood all over my race suit, and there are pieces of bird on the roll bars. The helmet stinks, the seat stinks.

“I didn’t get any chicken for lunch; I just walked past it. But I call it the ‘bad luck bird,’ and now it’s gone.”

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Hopefully, that’s the end of the bad luck as Grosjean and DCR could use a good result in the 500, and in the Sonsio Grand Prix on May 9, out on the IMS road course.

Grosjean is currently P20 in the standings while his teammate, rookie Dennis Hauger, is 16 points ahead in P16.

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