IndyCar: Lack of passing from UAK18 triggering first-lap aggression

The challenge that the UAK18 aero kits presents in terms of passing in IndyCar superspeedway races has resulted in the overaggressive driving that has caused massive wrecks in the last two races at Pocono Raceway.

Heading into last year’s IndyCar race at Pocono Raceway, the series had been competing at the “Tricky Triangle” each year since it ended its 24-year hiatus at the track in 2013.

In general, the racing at the three-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) oval in Long Pond, Pennsylvania had been tame from a wreck standpoint. The race in 2013 featured only two caution flag periods, and the race in 2014 featured only one and was the fastest 500-mile race in IndyCar history with an average speed of 202.402 miles per hour.

The race in 2015 gave the track a black eye with 12 caution flag periods and the death of Justin Wilson

The races in 2016 and 2017 were back to “normal”, with the former featuring four caution flag periods and the latter featuring only three.

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Now in each of the last two seasons, similar opening green flag lap five-car wrecks that have sent one car into the turn two catch fence have given the track a black eye that it doesn’t deserve.

Last year’s wreck paralyzed rookie Robert Wickens from the waist down when his car was launched into the fence. This year’s fortunately had no such ramifications, as rookie Felix Rosenqvist walked away after his car was launched into the very same fence. He did go to the hospital for further evaluation, but he was checked and released.

But there is one aspect of these wrecks that is seemingly going undiscussed, yet aside of driver error, it is arguably the number one reason why these wrecks happened. That is the introduction of the UAK18 aero kit.

The only superspeedway race prior to last year’s race at Pocono Raceway during which the UAK18 aero kit was used was the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and passing was at a premium throughout this race.

Unlike in previous years where drafting was common, lead changes happened once every few laps and nobody could break away from the pack, it took tons of planning and near perfect execution just to run a car down throughout the 102nd running of the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing”, much less actually advance one position.

In a way, this is what drivers and fans wanted to create less running in packs and to truly separate the best drivers and the best cars from the rest of the field.

Skip ahead not even three months to last year’s race at Pocono Raceway.

Unlike for the Indy 500 when there were close to 10 practice sessions, the race at Pocono Raceway featured only two scheduled practice sessions. One of those two sessions ended up being canceled due to rain.

With Pocono Raceway being a superspeedway, it was expected that it would produce similar racing to Indianapolis Motor Speedway even after several years of the track featuring dozens upon dozens of leads changes. And it did. The race featured just two on-track passes for the lead — one on the first green flag lap — and only four drivers finished on the lead lap.

As a result of the fact that this race would most assuredly not feature pack racing, drivers tried to capitalize on the field being bunched up on the opening green flag lap. That led to overaggressive driving, and with minimal practice time, it led to a massive wreck.

While this year’s Indy 500 featured a much closer finish than last year’s and more lead changes over the course of the final few laps, the race itself was very similar. There was not a ton of drafting, and the first on-track pass for the lead didn’t take place until roughly three quarters of the race were in the books.

This year’s race at Pocono Raceway was expected to be similar, and it was. In addition, the two hours of scheduled practice time ended up being crammed into one session as a result of rain, and qualifying was canceled. So again, track time had been limited.

Once again, with no pack racing predicted, there was a massive opening lap wreck thanks to overaggressive driving.

Ryan Hunter-Reay, who was involved in both of these wrecks, believes that this is a direct result of the new UAK18 aero kit, and his assessment is spot-on. Here is what he had to say, according to RACER.

"“It is so important to gain positions at the start, because it is a track position race. It’s not like it used to be here, where if you had a good car you could knife through it. I came from the back three times one here and went all the way to the front. You can’t do that right now, so I think a lot of guys felt the pressure to gain some spots at the beginning…and it all hand-grenaded.”"

Fans are so eager to blame to track for these kinds of incidents, but in reality, that should be the least of their concerns. It’s a knee-jerk, “high road” reaction that anyone who knows nothing about IndyCar feels they can take to sound half-educated about the series.

From 2013 to 2017, there was absolutely nothing wrong with this race. As referenced above, yes, Wilson was killed in 2015.  But Wilson happened to be hit in the helmet with a piece of debris, a fluke accident that truly could’ve happened anywhere.

To this day, when people use Wilson’s death to illustrate why the track isn’t safe, it’s like they’re Googling who died at what track and assuming that he was killed in a massive wreck for no reason other than to further their anti-Pocono agenda. If you think I’m kidding, go look at Twitter. It completely mitigates any argument that they might actually have against the track. It’s disgraceful.

If fans really want to blame something other than driver error for wrecks caused by driver error, look no further than the reason why these IndyCar races at Pocono Raceway aren’t transpiring the way they used to, and that is the UAK18 aero kit, for which fans had nothing but unjustified praise upon its introduction before we ever even saw it in action.