"That guy is a clown": Alexander Rossi exposes NHRA star's disaster performance after his criticism of FOX and IndyCar

The feud between IndyCar drivers and NHRA's Bob Tasca III has reached a new point, with Alexander Rossi joining in. The 33-year-old deemed Tasca a "clown" for his words as he testified his statement with the NHRA driver's recent performance at Gainesville Raceway.

To promote IndyCar's new affiliation with FOX Sports, the Manhattan-based broadcaster made several marketing campaigns. It included three promos of Josef Newgarden, Alex Palou, and Pato O'Ward, which garnered mass attention.

However, these promos included the statement, "welcome to the fastest racing on earth", which NHRA star Bob Tasca deemed was insulting for drag racing fans. He called FOX Sports a "Fake News Network" and incited a hoard of reactions from the racing world.

Subsequently, Alexander Rossi took a jibe at the NHRA racer by bringing out evidence that IndyCar was faster than drag racing by looking at Tasca's dismal performance at Gainesville. The 33-year-old condemned the NHRA driver, and said (via X/@AskOffTrack):

"That guy is a clown. My favorite part about all of this is the next time that he was on television, [it] was a qualifying run, and he qualified at 209mph. So, it was like slower than IndyCar, huh? Shut up!"

Rossi joined Ed Carpenter Racing for the 2025 season, replacing Rinus VeeKay at the Indianapolis-based team.

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Alexander Rossi opens up on the potential of Ed Carpenter Racing

Alexander Rossi at the INDYCAR Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg - Source: Getty

Alexander Rossi joined Arrow McLaren in 2023 after a five-year stint at Andretti. The 2016 Indy 500 winner last won a race in 2022 and has not returned to the top step of the podium ever since.

Similarly, Ed Carpenter Racing has not won a race in the past few seasons. The squad's last win came at the Indianapolis road course at the hands of VeeKay in 2021 and has been the path to its revival to the front of the grid.

Hoping to build the team as a front-runner, Alexander Rossi joined the team and laid out the blueprint for its success, as he said (via IndyCar):

"I think there’s the potential to surprise a lot of people at points in 2025. Obviously, nothing happens overnight. We're not going to go from the results that have existed the past couple of years to all of a sudden winning every race, but I do think that everything in this sport is (decided by) very small margins. … It's about putting puzzle pieces together correctly and executing efficiently, and that can add up to results pretty quickly."

The 33-year-old finished in the top 10 at the St. Petersburg Grand Prix. He will be hoping to continue his strong form into the next round at the Thermal Club on March 23.