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