IndyCar's latest embarrassment is bordering on organized crime

How many times, over the years, has the IndyCar fanbase, as a whole, aired their grievances with how IndyCar race control calls races, particularly when they refuse to throw the caution flag when there is danger on the race track?

After Josef Newgarden's No. 2 Chevrolet ended up flipped on its top, skidding across the front straightaway at Gateway, due to their inexplicable decision to remain green as Louis Foster hit the wall and spun across the track, we were actually goofy enough to believe something had changed.

Joke's on us, I guess. Because on Sunday at Laguna Seca, they endangered the lives of multiple drivers as they napped through several dangerous incidents, proving they haven't learned a thing from past mistakes.

First, it was Rinus VeeKay sitting stationary for over a minute in the turn three gravel trap after contact with Kyle Kirkwood.

One misjudgment for any one of the other drivers in the field in that tricky corner, and the No. 18 Honda gets t-boned, while its helpless driver can do nothing more than pray he doesn't end up in the hospital.

And yet somehow race control outdid themselves a short time later with a second incident which was far worse.

Marcus Ericsson stalled on the race track coming off of turn six after a brief off-track excursion.

Key words: on the race track.

Green, green, green.

I'm sure part of it, like we saw last year before Santino Ferrucci went catapulting into the Toronto catchfence after another display of race control's complete incompetence, has to do with the "oh look how cool this hybrid restart system is" nonsense that IndyCar has been peddling since the hybrid era started last year.

"Let's wait around a few laps and see if he can get it going again, shall we? This is really cool technology right here, folks."

Very rarely do you hear all three IndyCar on Fox announcers totally beside themselves over the complete and sheer idiocy of the individuals who are given the responsibility of making the right calls regarding track safety.

But good on Will Buxton, Townsend Bell, and James Hinchcliffe for not shilling out for the series and actually making clear how completely half-witted it was for race control not to call the yellow for Ericsson well before they finally did.

That, and like anybody else watching the race unfold, they were probably legitimately scared to death over what might happen next with the No. 28 Honda just sitting there, in a spot where oncoming traffic had very little time to react.

Ericsson was stalled on the freaking race track. At a blind spot. Even if he had gotten it restarted quickly, he would have been a slow-moving (at best) hazard in the middle of the race track.

And the total ignoramuses in race control had clear enough consciences to let him sit there for more than a minute, watching his life flash before his eyes every time another blind-spotted car sped past him?

Next month marks 10 years since IndyCar's most recent fatality. I hope that number increases indefinitely. It also marks seven years since its most recent serious injury.

At what point are we going to stop taking those numbers for granted?

These cars are as safe as they've ever been, but they're nowhere near safe enough for IndyCar to be committing this type of foolishness, much less on this regular of a basis.

Let's address something else first: I do get the fact that fans were also upset over race control letting the pit sequence play out after the first one. Pit strategy is a part of the sport, and you're effectively penalizing the teams that made the right gamble by pitting before the incident when you make that decision.

By "letting it play out", you're literally doing the opposite; you're manipulating the race based on who you feel should and shouldn't be up front. It's pathetic, and I still think we should be calling for sportsbook-related investigations whenever it happens, but that's the tinfoil hat conspiracy theorist in me.

Bottom line, if it warrants a yellow, it warrants a yellow. Period. There's a difference between being trigger-happy and being reasonable.

Back to business. This issue is bigger than that. And before we get into that, yes, Alex Palou was going to win this race by a lightyear anyway. This wasn't like last year, when IndyCar basically teleported Josef Newgarden from outside the top 10 and re-spawned him in second because they felt like letting him make a free pit stop before throwing the yellow.

I'm sorry, but I'm not sorry. Race control is incompetent. They are inept. They are a complete clown show, and unfortunately, given the fact that they continue to fail to learn from their mistakes, it is probably going to take a serious injury or worse before they actually get their heads out of the gravel trap and start calling races properly.

I used to be a flagger at a local electric go-kart track for about a year and a half when I was in high school. $7.50 an hour. Nobody, and I truly mean nobody, I ever worked with was as incompetent or as slow as IndyCar race control was this weekend when reacting (or not reacting) to a massive on-track danger.

Something needs to change. There needs to be accountability.

I'm not going to start sharing tweets here to back up my point, but just take a look at what fans are saying on social media about it. It's not pretty. It shouldn't be.

But it's a heck of a lot prettier than what it would be if something bad actually happened. So maybe, just maybe, the so-called "keyboard warriors" are onto something. Maybe they've been onto something for years, and maybe, just maybe, IndyCar should start to take these concerns seriously, before it becomes too late. The clock is ticking.