INDYCAR’s return to Barber brings memory of bizarre mannequin moment

Georgina will be watching the INDYCAR drivers this week as they speed underneath her bridge at Barber Motorsports Park (1:30 p.m. ET on FOX).

She has no plans of falling.

“She’s got a huge amount of chains on her,” said last year’s race winner Scott McLaughlin.

The last time McLaughlin saw Georgina, he was sitting next to her after winning the race in one of the funniest photos of the 2024 season. And now that people look back and the fact no one was hurt, it was one of the funniest moments in an INDYCAR race.

You see, the mannequin Georgina fell from a bridge during the race last year. Alex Palou admits it was one of his more startling moments in a race car.

“I saw it go right on the [ground] and obviously it looked like a person,” Palou said. “At those speeds, you don’t think it is a mannequin.

“And then they told me on the radio it was mannequin and I was like, ‘OK that’s fine.’ They would have gone yellow [if not], right?”

Of course it would have gone yellow. Instead, with the mannequin mostly on the grass, the race continued with one car running over the hand of the mannequin. It was removed during a caution later in the race.

“It was a bit sketchy when driving and seeing something lying on the side of the road and thinking it was like a human or something,” said Marcus Ericsson. “It was a bit weird.”

When McLaughlin first saw the mannequin on the track, he was upset. As the leader of the race, he thought it would end up impacting his strategy.

“I actually didn’t know what it was,” McLaughlin said. “And then I realized, and it was pretty funny looking back at the footage and you see people running over the hand.

“I saw her there and I was like, ‘Oh she’s down.’”

The art and statues around the track are part of the eclectic charm of the Barber course. 

McLaughin took a photo with the mannequin after the race. He wasn’t sure if making fun of the mannequin would be seen as funny by everyone.

“I didn’t want to do it,” McLaughlin said. “They made me do that. I didn’t want to get in trouble — I could have got in trouble, I don’t know why but you never know.

“But the photo turned out hilarious and it’s now on trading cards.”

And he doesn’t expect to have a repeat incident. The track insists she is secured for the event and McLaughlin, who tested there earlier this year, indicated she isn’t going to fall.

“Unfortunately for her, she is pretty tied up,” McLaughlin said with a laugh.

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and IndyCar for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.