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very happy for Josef - long time coming

but I gotta say it - the last half of that race put a bad taste in my mouth with how everything played out. I hated those late restarts so much, these cars are way too bunched up for that.

At least they allowed a super early restart with the 1 to go shootout, it's where they shoulda been restarting all along instead of allowing the inmates to run the asylum by checking up the field & bunch up everyone until turn 4.


I'd have to double check the current rulebook, but they had that rule in past for nearly a decade & change - carried over from the IRL.

I'm guessing they just ignored it & yeeted it between last year's finish + given there's no mile & a half tracks with usable aprons on the schedule anymore

Aftermath where the wheel went.
https://www.reddit.com/r/INDYCAR/commen ... &context=3

Indy is usually 150 laps of waiting, surviving, saving fuel. Then 30 laps of tension rising, and 20 laps of now it's time to give it all boys!

I feel like we got robbed of the last 20 laps. The way this ended was such an anticlimax, that all I could think of was: you call that a race?

I'm OK with Indycar trying to finish the race under green, but they went overboard today.
It really should be just one red flag to attempt to finish the race, and only between about lap 185 and 195. After that the race should end under caution if there's another crash.

Yea, well said, can't fault Newgarden as he drove flawlessly today to come through the field and solid tire/fuel management. Race Control really went overboard today in an effort to "fabricate" a green flag finish and can't blame Ericsson for feeling gutted. He was always going to be a sitting duck with Newgarden in his slipstream.

I don't understand how this isn't common practice yet. If the concern is fuel, set a limit of extra laps and fuel accordingly.

Historically, the Indy 500 was a marathon, not a sprint. In the past, there would often only be a couple of cars on the lead lap, attrition was often very high, and close finishes like 1982 and 1992 were very rare.

You can't go back, of course; we now have a spec series with much less reliability issues, which is tweaked to deliberately provide slip-streaming at Indy. Fair enough. But I personally feel that NASCAR's "manufactured excitement" via "entertainment cautions", GWCs, sprints, playoffs, etc. have hurt the sport on that side more than it helped. All those red flags thrown felt like a "manufactured gimmick" in too many ways. I don't think the show today for Indycar's most prestigious event was a good look, either. (And, similar to my thoughts on NASCAR rules, this comment is saying nothing about the drivers in the series, this is all about race control and management.)

The drivers control the crashing and the crashing was the problem. They shouldn't have red flagged it after Pato's crash. They had enough time to clean that up and have a shootout and not turn it into a clown show.

Regardless of how you feel about the red flags and the finish, the media and social media attention over the last part of the race will tell Indycar they were right to do what they did, so you should probably expect more of this. Personally I find red flags less offensive than the idea of arbitrarily extending a race length or inventing an invisible finish line anywhere around the track. But I guess we all have our own unique purist sensibilities.

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Yellow flag finishes are the unfortunate circumstance that races used to end under.

Throughout the race they were to close to each other for my comfort. And that, imo, is what led to the absolutely insane weaving on the straights, and it for nothing in the end. I think less downforce will solve that issue. Unless they really want someone to hot the pit wall or go over it.

Why the hate for red flags? Better to stop and save the precious few laps remaining. It's stupid to just waste laps running behind the safety car. Look how they wasted precious laps with multiple laps behind the safety car after red flag 1 and 2, but suddenly, it was possible to restart straight away after red flag 3. They need to learn from that, speed up the restart proces.

For me, they should red flag after every crash, because now we sometimes lose 10 to 15 laps under a safety car for clean up and unnecesary warm up laps. It should be crash > red flag > restart with every accident. This way we almost have no lost laps, most laps will be racing laps as it should be. And no one will be able to pit under safety car, all stops will be green flag stops. Much more pure, no lucky yellows for some people to jump a bunch of places

It's more of how it only came along late for restarts in the last 10 / 15 laps.

I don't mind the red flags when it was done in past - but this felt alot like the Aussie GP in regards to how over the top it was this year

I don't disagree that the series wastes way too many laps under caution - same can be said for NASCAR & IMSA as well. But they can only do what they can do, and then you got TV at times wants more yellow laps to finish out ad break windows - so it is what is

Race really was a blast! Stoked for Josef. Glad it didn't finish under 10 laps of yellow

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"An idea whose time has come cannot be stopped by any army or any government"


3x TBKL rFactor Hillclimb champion

Great Finish and the célébration

They managed to end under green without extending the race distance and that's perfect. All correct decisions imho. Also the crowd at the track loved it and we had a blast in turn 3.

Yeah, I wouldn't be mad if they added an yellow line rule there.

Would be nice to have a better restart procedure, or just force the rules in a more strict manner.

Ferrucci was such a dick on the restart just before T1. Someone needs to properly beat some common sense into him before he kills someone

Here's my problem:

I watch Indycar to get away from NASCAR's over-gimmicked clownshow. This felt like an impromptu testing of the waters from Indycar in their biggest race.

If it's true that the fans in the stands and the non-diehards who only watch the 500 love it, worst-case scenario says it could lead to GWC's, stage racing, and playoffs in the near future. Or at least, that's the feeling I get from some people.