INDIANAPOLIS — It’s the Month of May. In a few days, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway should have been opening their gates for the GMR Grand Prix race weekend. Instead, COVID-19 and its impact has made the iconic race track silent for another couple of months. For the first time since 1945, we won’t have race cars circling the famed venue during May.

On Saturday though, there were virtual race cars racing around a virtual 2.5-mile IMS oval. For whatever reason, some people got too engrossed into it again and got fooled. Once again, I’m having to write about something I had no plans of writing about — video game racing. I’d rather watch paint dry or my green grass grow than watch adults, young and middle aged, play a video game in their homes.

It’s in no way shape of form real. It’s literally humans playing video games and people are tuning in to watch it. Nothing about this is to be taken for stock. It’s purely for entertainment purposes and entertainment purposely only. Unfortunately, people treat it like it’s real and it’s growing to be a problem. Its done more harm than good and it’s a shame.

The defending Indianapolis 500 race winner and Rookie of the Year were put on blast for their actions at the end of that video game race on Saturday. I question, why? Why yet again, are two very good race car drivers being blamed for something that happened in a video game?

Bubba Wallace was given grief for quitting a video game race on the NASCAR side several weeks ago. He lost a sponsor over it. He did what almost all of us would have done in that exact same moment and quit racing in a video game after being crashed. If this happened in real life, he wouldn’t have been able to continue anyways. His car was crashed. So why chastise him for quitting? It’s a fake race he wouldn’t have won and had better things to do than race a wrecked race car in a video game. I mean, it proves my point on this “insert a vowel here* virtual racing.

We should all have better things to do than sit at the edge of your couches and watch race car drivers play video games. If you want to watch for entertainment, I get it, but don’t hold drivers accountable for moves made in a video game race.

On Saturday, it got ugly again. I yet again didn’t watch so the specific details of the entire race isn’t my forte. I haven’t watched a single video game race yet and never will. I did watch highlights on why this is even a topic again. What perturbed me was seeing the vitriol shown towards last year’s ‘500 winner (Simon Pagenaud) and last year’s ROY (Ferrucci).

Here’s facts –

1. Pagenaud was mad at F1 driver Lando Norris for crashing him in Turn 2. That’s part of what appears to be what caused the dust up later that Norris hints out Pagenaud didn’t want a F1 driver to win. More on this later.

2. Ferrucci purposely crashed Oliver Askew on the front stretch in going for the win.

Now, lets dig deeper. Pagenaud, had every right to be mad at Norris. You can’t go three-wide into Turn 2 at Indianapolis and expect it to work. To then be mad at Pagenaud for a move later? Why? Then, to insinuate that Norris is superior to Pagenaud and that Pagenaud should be punished? That’s laughable. If anyone really thinks F1 drivers are superior to IndyCar drivers because of a video game, well you have some serious problems and I’ll gladly front the bill for the first couple of visits to a counselor for help.

Pagenaud, is a driver that Norris wishes his career could be. Fact. He’s an Indy 500 champion, an IndyCar Series champion, an Indy 500 pole winner, a 14 time winner in the toughest series to compete in around the entire globe. His face is on the Borg-Warner Trophy and the ticket to this year’s Aug. 23 event.

Norris, is a 20 year old kid racing in his second season in F1 who’s face would be tough to pick out of a crowd. He has *checks notes* zero career F1 victories. I’m not God and can’t predict the future, but he’s not winning any time soon. He hasn’t even won a race it seems since 2018. Just because Norris was leading a video game race doesn’t mean he’s a better IndyCar driver than Pagenaud. Fact.

That logic would be like me saying just because I’m good at a war video game that I could go out and be the best solider the United States military has ever put in duty. You absolutely can’t place any stock in how well someone does in a video game and compare it to real life. Fact again.

Plus, Norris, the guy that F1 fans are putting on a pedestal right now, would have crashed out in that move in Turn 2 anyways. That rookie move wouldn’t have worked in real life and would have taken him out too in the process. Or, maybe, just maybe, in real life he wouldn’t have been running up front with the leaders anyways. Or there’s this — in real life Norris wouldn’t have made that idiotic move in Turn 2 because of the repercussions of doing so.

I know Pagenaud wouldn’t have made his move on Norris that he did if this was real life because in a video game, there’s no pain to wrecking. There violent rigors that your body goes through in a crash in real life, well in fake video game racing, there’s none of it.

The g-forces and sensation of speed can’t be replicated either. So, there’s nothing about yesterday’s race that can be applied to real racing at Indianapolis.

So, stop the blame towards Pagenaud and maybe take the shade and direct it towards respect for what Pagenaud accomplished last May. Norris, can’t hold a candle to Pagenaud and until he proves otherwise in real life, I don’t want to see the hate and speculation otherwise. End of discussion about that.

Now, the move Ferrucci made…He was going for the win in a video game. Again, no draw back for crashing the car in front because you’re not going to feel any sort of pain in doing so.

How many times would we crash people in front of us on the last lap of Mario Kart? Why not go for it? For Askew to be mad, I get it, but to force this into a rivalry and punish Ferrucci? Get out of here.

Askew *checks notes* has never won an IndyCar race before. He’s never raced in a real  IndyCar in his life. Yes, he’s got a ride with Arrow McLaren SP for 2020, but he’s yet to compete in a “real” race for them. He’s a hell of a talent and could be really good in the future, but to be mad about not winning a fake race that pays no money, nets you no trophy and gives no glory of winning at Indy in real life, I say, get over it. Ferrucci wouldn’t have made that move in real life as a close P2 in Indianapolis would have gained him even more fame and fortune and produced a great championship day. It would have produced a ton of much needed money for his team, so I know for 100-percent certainty Ferrucci would have settled for second in real life.

It’s a fake race with no real similarities to real racing. Are the graphics good? Yes. Can you test setups on it? Sure. Can you take what you learn from this and turn it into being a real race car driver at a high level?

No.

I mean, look at the crash from Graham Rahal during this race. His No. 15 Honda was sent so high it was in the top 10 of the scoring pylon. At what part of that crash is realistic?

That would never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever happen in real life. The crash at the end, never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever would have happened in real life. The Pagenaud/Norris dust up would have never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever happened in real life. Norris, is not close to the talent level of Pagenaud right now.

So, why are we trying to question Pagenaud’s and Ferrucci’s real life racing careers and their character? It’s fake racing and it’s getting out of hand.

TV picked this up to be entertainment and people act like it’s the real thing. It’s not anyone else’s fault but those who take it too seriously. Get mad at the drivers for not taking it seriously? That’s a you problem.

Lets be thankful the real thing starts back up in a couple of weeks.