Does this strange Indy 500 loophole need to change?

A dramatic Saturday Indy 500 qualifying session highlighted one rule that not many were familiar with before it playing a key role in determining the starting lineup.

One of the biggest headlines heading into Sunday’s Bump Day qualifying session for the 105th running of the Indy 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was the fact that Team Penske’s Will Power was still not locked into the 33-car field and needed to be a part of the last chance qualifier in order to make it in.

Fortunately for Power, he did make it into next Sunday’s 200-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) oval in Speedway, Indiana.

After missing out on the top 30 on Saturday, he qualified in 32nd place, good for the middle of the 11th and final row, on Sunday.

The thing is, his final speed on Saturday was better than that of the 30th place qualifier — and in the same session.

This situation presented a loophole that not many knew existed before it led to A.J. Foyt Enterprises’ Dalton Kellett getting into the field with a four-lap average speed of 228.323 miles per hour and Power needing to participate in the Last Row Shootout, despite the fact that he posted a four-lap average speed of 229.228 miles per hour in the same session as Kellett posted his speed.

The reason for this is the fact that any qualifying speed that does not rank inside the top 30 when the run is made or at any point after the run is made is discounted immediately.

When Power ran his four-lap average speed of 229.228 miles per hour, Kellett sat in 30th place with a four-lap average speed of 229.250 miles per hour. So Power was effectively given a “N/A” for his effort, even though it was his final run of the day and he did not opt to waive it off.

In one respect, this makes sense, because at the end of the day, a speed that isn’t in the top 30 isn’t in the top 30.

However, as we saw on Saturday, there is a way around this seemingly simple situation. And under the current qualifying format, which sees both a no-risk lane and a risk lane as far as previous speeds are concerned, this is a rule that you really have to question.

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At any given time after there have been at least 30 qualifiers, there will only be 30 official speeds registered. All other runs simply don’t count, whether they rank 31st or 61st.

So Kellett, sitting in 30th place, effectively had nothing to lose by making another qualifying run, a run that turned out to be quite a bit slower than his first one at 228.323 miles per hour. Sure, he “risked” his time in the priority lane, but did he really “risk” his time?

Sitting in last place among the top 30, he technically could have run out the clock and posted a super slow average speed and still qualified 30th.

What’s the point in allowing someone to withdraw their previous 30th place time if a four-lap average of 0.001 miles per hour is technically going to be good enough to keep you inside the top 30?

You’re not really “removing yourself from the Indy 500” like we heard about all afternoon.

Obviously, if you’re currently in 10th place and trying to get into the Fast Nine Shootout, there’s some risk involved there and that wouldn’t be a strategy you would use to prevent yourself from being bumped.

But even under the current format, you’d still be guaranteed to be 30th at worst after your run. Again, you’re not “removing yourself from the Indy 500”, even in the priority lane.

IndyCar does reserve the right to waive a run if it is deemed to be too slow, but based on how much time was left when his run began, Kellett probably could have run out the clock and nobody would have protested. IndyCar will only ever make that decision if it’s absolutely and clear that the run has no shot to succeed.

Fortunately, he and the team didn’t completely exploit this loophole; they simply exposed it just enough to make people notice.

And Kellett didn’t even know it; he thought he was out and that he was going to be faced with the “why did you bump yourself out?” type of questions, given that 228.323 miles per hour is slower than the 229.228 miles per hour average that Power had just run.

Kellett finished his run with just enough time left so that Paretta Autosport’s Simona de Silvestro had time to get out and make another run, and her run wasn’t good enough for the top 30. Power didn’t have enough time for another run after that, which he needed since his 229.228 was effectively a 0.000 despite not being withdrawn by the team, so Kellett was in.

Does anything need to change?

At the end of the day, one four-lap average speed should really be classified for each driver at any given time.

The only way this shouldn’t be the case is if that driver withdraws a time and then waives off his or her next run. In that case, it actually makes sense to classify his or her speed as “N/A”.

But aside from that circumstance, including one speed for every driver should include the drivers who rank 31st place and worse. So if a 30th place driver — or even a 10th place driver — removes his previous speed, he or she should truly be “removing himself/herself from the Indy 500”, with another driver taking his or her place for the time being.

It’s really quite simple. At this point, the 31st place driver should keep his or her non-withdrawn speed and move to 30th. If the original top 30 driver betters his or her speed or stays in the top 30, he or she will land somewhere in the top 30, and that 31st place driver will drop back to 31st, knowing that another run will likely be necessary and relying on a top 30 driver to withdraw a previous speed isn’t the best bet to bump back in.

And if that original top 30 driver does not better his or her speed, tough; that’s your speed, you chose to withdraw your initial speed, you chose to take that risk, you chose to remove yourself from the Indy 500, and now you’re no longer in the top 30 and somebody else is because a speed that they opted not to withdraw was quicker than an extra run you opted to take by withdrawing your previous speed.

It sounds more complicated than it is. In layman’s terms, the top 30 speeds among all non-withdrawn speeds should be classified as the top 30 speeds, period. There shouldn’t be a maximum of 30 speeds on the entire board at one time.

Right now, there’s pretty much no risk for the 30th place driver — even in the “risk” lane — for going back out.

The only thing that doesn’t play to your advantage is that a slower speed becomes easier to bump, but you wouldn’t generally see a 30th place driver completely withdrawing his or her time anyway unless it’s to protect against being bumped toward the end of the session by running a faster speed.

Think about it: a 30th place driver isn’t going to withdraw his or her time for fun with an hour left in the session and run a four-lap average at 150 miles per hour. That speed would get bumped in a heartbeat.

So if the clock ends up running out and the gun goes off during a 30th place driver’s qualifying run, a slower speed really doesn’t matter — again, no risk.

Now that this loophole has been exposed, don’t rule out teams trying to exploit it in the future unless something changes — and the fix is really quite simple. Fortunately, it didn’t end up mattering much this time around.

NBC is set to broadcast the 105th running of the Indy 500 live from Indianapolis Motor Speedway beginning at 11:00 a.m. ET on Sunday, May 30.