They did it again.
Rather than throwing a caution flag for an obvious on-track hazard when they should have, IndyCar Race Control let Alexander Rossi sit in his stationary No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet on Indianapolis Motor Speedway's front straightaway, just so they didn't "mess with the pit cycle" by preventing the leaders from making pit stops.
On one hand, the fact that pit entry was right before Rossi's car actually meant that this decision, unlike the litany of other similar decisions to leave drivers stranded in recent years, was somewhat defensible, in that there was at least a slight built-in safety measure by effectively encouraging many of the other drivers to come through the pits.
On another, it still obviously wasn't safe, as it's not like they totally shut down the 170mph+ front straightaway. And even beyond the safety aspect, they still found a way to foul it up from a competition standpoint.
They threw a local yellow, which confused a number of drivers and teams, and that actually resulted in more messing with the pit cycle than there would have been had the situation been treated as it should have been.
Under the impression that Race Control had made a rational decision and thrown the yellow when they should have, Chip Ganassi Racing's Alex Palou and Andretti Global's Kyle Kirkwood, running first and second at the time, stayed on the race track to avoid pitting in a closed pit lane.
Except the pit lane wasn't closed, because it was still only a local yellow.
The rest of the leaders pit, and because of that, Palou and Kirkwood dropped to the back when they eventually pit under the full course caution. They rallied for fifth and ninth, respectively, while Team Penske's David Malukas and Arrow McLaren's Christian Lundgaard, the top two drivers who pit, ended up battling for the win.
Whenever Race Control makes the decision not to interfere with the pit cycle, they end up doing exactly that. Strategy is part of the sport. There's a reason staying out is referred to as the "danger zone" when somebody else goes for the undercut. If you haven't pit, and you get caught out by a yellow flag, tough.
Yet over the past few years, that has not been Race Control's motto. Their philosophy, simply put, has seemingly been "leader first, safety last".
What if there were a happy medium?
There is, and it's a happy medium that they effectively accidentally revealed during the Sonsio Grand Prix road course race.
By throwing the local yellow, the pits stayed open for an extra lap before the full course yellow flew. Why not just change the rule so that the pits stay open for a lap when the full course caution comes out?
This would prevent the leader's race from being undone due to an untimely yellow, and it would prove that safety is still number one.
It feels like a no-brainer solution, but it's probably not going to happen.
The reason this won't change, of course, is obvious: strategy is indeed a part of the sport. Changing this rule would take away a massive element of that. Everybody knows that, and it's why I've never actually wanted this rule to change.
But given the fact that IndyCar Race Control has seemed to have an affinity for interfering with race strategy based on who they feel should be leading the race, hasn't that element of strategy already been removed in many road course races to begin with?
If this rule were going to change, it would have changed after Sage Karam's spin at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in 2015. Juan Pablo Montoya fans, in particular, remember it well.
Because it won't change, however, there's still an easy solution: when there's a dangerous on-track situation, the yellow flag needs to fly. Simple as that.
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