IndyCar is lacking controversy, so fans literally needed to invent one

In 2022, it was Jimmie Johnson being gifted Indy 500 Rookie of the Year honors because his name is Jimmie Johnson.

In 2023, it was IndyCar's Indy 500 red flag restart procedure, which happened to benefit Team Penske.

In 2024, it was Team Penske's push-to-pass scandal.

In 2025, it was Team Penske's attenuator scandal, which was subsequently determined to have stretched back to at least their 2024 Indy 500 victory.

In 2026, because of the lack of actual controversy on the race track, we've had to stoop as low as making something out of what was, from the start, a complete nothingburger.

Two nothingburgers, actually, if you want to account for IndyCar's recently removed Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C. t-shirt, which a group of disgruntled fans intentionally misinterpreted as a racially motivated symbol of white supremacy to bolster their social media clout simply because the word "race" was used, albeit in a clear motorsport context.

But that's a subject for another day.

What would the month of May be like without a controversy of some sort lingering over IndyCar?

The latest fake controversy in the IndyCar world has to do with the push-to-pass system once again, after it was mistakenly left on during the only restart of the April race on the streets of Long Beach, California.

In the wake of the 2024 scandal, when Team Penske effectively coded a way to keep the system active during starts and restarts when it was supposed to be turned off, many drivers admitted that they use the button during the start and restarts anyway, just in case the system glitches, knowing that there is no penalty for doing so because nobody is actually skirting the rulebook.

It's a way to play it safe, because if anybody else is using it (and, as we know, several drivers would be) when the cars are all stacked up together and it's supposed to be off, you want to be ready so you're not at a disadvantage.

That's exactly what 12 drivers did on the streets of Long Beach. Because it was an IndyCar error, and it had literally zero bearing on the race result, IndyCar appropriately decided not to change the results of the race.

It was really 11, because Graham Rahal supposedly used it once for "roughly 0.0 seconds", but that's beside the point.

Moving forward, IndyCar is leaving it up to the teams and drivers themselves not to use the button on the start, until the alternate start/finish line is reached, while also now allowing it to be used on restarts.

Yet during IndyCar's Thursday press conference ahead of Saturday's Sonsio Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, the first race in which the new procedure and rule are set to be in effect, nobody not named Bob Pockrass seemed to know what the new changes actually are.

It was a tense, yet at the same time light-hearted exchange, between Alex Palou, Kyle Kirkwood, and Pato O'Ward regarding the Long Beach situation. Of the three, only Palou used the button, and he did so three times for 15.1 seconds. David Malukas, who also used it once for six seconds, was also involved, although he didn't say much.

Andretti Global's Kirkwood joked that the Chip Ganassi Racing and Meyer Shank Racing cars, the two teams that have a technical alliance after Meyer Shank Racing cut ties with Andretti Global, "must have had an indicator" that it was on.

While obviously a joke, his assertion was slightly incorrect that "all" of those cars used it, as Scott Dixon did not, but that topic led to a deeper discussion, as Kirkwood also said that every driver would have been on the button had they known the system hadn't been disabled.

O'Ward stated that he didn't press the button because he knew the rule and was not told it was active, although nobody was specifically instructed that it was. However, as the rule was written at the time, it only applied to the system being disabled by IndyCar on restarts, and IndyCar failed to hold up their end.

In response, Palou correctly stated that the rule, in and of itself, was that the system would not be activated, and O'Ward didn't disagree. He too noted that the rule itself was not explicit in saying that drivers were forbidden from using the button in the event of a series/system error. To further his point, Palou responded, "someone in IndyCar f**** up, and it's my fault?"

Yet at the same time, Palou, along with 11 (really 10) others did press the button to gain an advantage that was not intended, and this very confusion is why the rule seemingly needed to change to begin with; in fact, it probably should have changed immediately after the 2024 scandal fallout.

There was more debate about it on Saturday.

You could argue that it's implied that drivers aren't supposed to be using it even if the series messes up, but like O'Ward said, that was not explicit before, and if it were something the series had actually been concerned about, they would have made that clear when several drivers willingly admitted in 2024 that they push it just in case.

But aside from an animated press conference, the whole debacle has led to calls for Palou to be penalized.

Nobody seemed to have any concerns with Felix Rosenqvist, who was running second at the time after Palou passed him in the pits, using it three times for 18.5 seconds. Where was he during this press conference?

What if Rosenqvist had passed Palou for the win because of his extra usage of the button? How would that have looked for the series? Would they have changed the results? Would fans be clamoring for a results change?

Palou's usage of the button, while technically "naughty", is exactly why drivers have long felt they've needed to at least press it on restarts in the first place.

Not because you're trying to cheat, but because you do not want to give another advantage simply because the series made a mistake, and while mistakes are rare, they clearly can (and do) happen. Long Beach was proof.

Again, nobody is explicitly notified. Those same drivers were probably pushing the button on every other restart for the past X number of years when the system wasn't active, just in case, and it's exactly why the rule needed to change.

Fans also need to understand that while the rule is now changed, and further violations will indeed be subject to penalty since IndyCar no longer plans to disable the system, those penalties aren't going to be anything close to what happened in 2024, when Team Penske blatantly cheated by manipulating the system for their cars, and two of the three drivers took advantage.

Push-to-pass data is available in the moment, so if a driver is using the button when he shouldn't be, it's probably not going to be anything more than a "give up position" penalty, or at most, a drive-through penalty issued shortly thereafter.

We're not talking another Josef Newgarden win-stripping disqualification, 45 days after the fact. Comparing what happened in Long Beach to what happened in 2024 is the epitome of apples to oranges.

And how would stripping Palou of a win and giving it to the guy who used the button more than he did be justice, much less justice against the entity that fouled up to begin with?

The number of fans pretending to be upset about it for Reddit upvotes and Twitter engagement is laughable. Eleven (excluding Rahal) guys did it, but only one should be penalized.

Of course, these are the same individuals who have claimed for the past few years that Palou's dominance is killing the series, all the while television ratings and viewership continue to break record after record. While Kirkwood may want to joke about it, it's obvious that these fans have an agenda.

Our only complaint is that Palou isn't enough of a "villain" for as dominant as he is; he could easily embrace a Denny Hamlin-type role with a "10 against the world" or "I beat your favorite driver" bit, which he has done a lot of over the past six seasons, to further rile up the disgruntled fans, who for some reason keep tuning in, despite claiming they're supposedly leaving the sport in droves.

While we're glad there are no actual controversies surrounding the series this year, let's hope there are more legitimate news items to discuss moving forward, rather than some total nonsense about why a driver should be penalized for winning, while nobody can even name the other 10 who performed the same technically legal maneuver.

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