Grosjean enrages Rahal with aggressive late-race contact

LEEDS, Ala. (AP) — The honeymoon is over for Romain Grosjean, and if Barber Motorsports Park had hosted a boxing match, then Graham Rahal would have at least bloodied IndyCar's darling.

Grosjean has romanced his way through IndyCar since last year, when “The Phoenix” chose to race in the United States once recovered from the fiery crash that nearly killed him in a spectacular Formula One wreck. His scarred hands were part of a comeback story that wooed Americans already familiar with the Frenchman’s F1 career through Netflix.

Winless in 10 seasons, Grosjean was suspended one race a decade ago for his role in a crash and struggled through five unsatisfying seasons with American team, Haas. Then he narrowly escaped burning to death when he freed himself from fiery wreckage with two races remaining in his F1 career.

An IndyCar community with an insatiable thirst for shiny new stars embraced The Phoenix as its own supernova.

Grosjean won most popular driver in an offseason fan survey after just one year in IndyCar, and he now drives for one of IndyCar's biggest teams. He's running the full schedule with Andretti Autosport, will make his Indianapolis 500 debut this month, and try to win the IndyCar championship.

Although he’s made some costly on-track mistakes along the way — he misjudged Portland’s first turn last September, ran over the back of Takuma Sato at St. Pete in February — nothing caused as dramatic an outburst as his run-in with Rahal on Sunday in the final laps at Barber.

The two were battling for seventh and eighth and Rahal felt he gave Grosjean enough room for a fair race for position. Instead, he alleged Grosjean intentionally hit him and then took it a step further in referencing Grosjean’s time in F1.

“Another driver in the series told me ‘You can’t...