Fernando Alonso got his first taste of oval racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Wednesday — as well as an unexpected taste of how Randy Johnson felt in 2001.
Alonso slowly built up speed throughout the day, and during the afternoon, the two-time Formula One champion had an unfortunate encounter with a couple of wayward birds.
Much like the bird that famously collided with Johnson’s fastball, the winged creatures that met Alonso’s No. 29 were killed in an explosion of feathers. And as if hitting two birds at once while on a track 2 1/2 miles long wasn’t improbable enough, each one came within inches of entering his car’s side pods and wreaking havoc on it internals.
Here’s a video of the incident at the famous oval:
Poor birds.
Alonso made shock waves when he elected to compete in the Indianapolis 500 in lieu of F1’s Monaco Grand Prix. The Spaniard will pilot his No. 29 Honda for Andretti Autosport in the 101st running of the Indy 500, as he attempts to capture the second of three wins necessary to capture the triple crown of motorsports.
Thumbnail photo via Twitter/@McLarenF1
