Q: IndyCar needs to set some rules for the red flag: When the red is warranted? How late is too late to restart? I’m happy with what we saw, but it seemed odd (and arbitrary) to throw red to preserve one lap.
Chris Schaffner, Concord, MA
MP: As plenty of folks have already suggested, setting a threshold of having at least two green laps left to run as the go/no go for triggering a red sure seems like a good idea. And who’s to say the outcome would have changed in any way if that were the case? Josef or Santino appeared to have a tiny bit more than Marcus, so who know, with two laps, maybe Ericsson comes home in third. Or maybe he wins. Again, who knows, but at least we aren’t into two consecutive weeks of passionate IndyCar fans feeling like something wrong or unsporting was enacted to dictate the outcome of the Indy 500. With at least two laps of green to settle the score, I don’t think anybody — the drivers included — take issue with the results.
Q: In years past the Indy 500 purse always paid a minimum of $200,000 just to start. After looking at this year’s payout, Legge got paid $102,000. Not to sound greedy, but that is not enough money to risk your life for. All Mr. Penske did was skim from the bottom and increase the Leaders Circle payouts. Not right. There needs to be more then 22 Leaders Circle entries if Mr. Penske wants to see the series to continue to grow. This year’s payout is a slap in the face for one-off teams.
AE, Danville, IN
MP: Think of that prize money like a bonus to a base salary in this case. Legge was hand-picked for the opportunity, which means she wasn’t driving to take home a share of the prize money as her only pay day or incentive. Also, as a non-Leaders Circle entry, the easy way to get the big Indy 500 dollars is to field a full-time entry and earn one of those 22 contracts based on quality performances. If I’m Ganassi, Andretti, etc., I’m making damn sure the person who shows up for one race isn’t being treated as a financial equal to those who invest in being there for all 17. Also, I just sided with the primary team owners… what the hell is wrong with me?
Q: Indy was another bad day for the Andrettis, but they came away with some decent finishes because of all the crashing. A lot of people were saying Herta was held in the pits and left while he was being held — I’ve watched frame by frame and he was being held but the right-rear tire changer waves up and then reaches down for the tire as Grosjean comes in. Herta was still in the pit box when he waved up. That was not on Herta, it was on the wheel changer, what do you think?
CAM in LA
MP: Agreed. I was wrong in my post-race video when I said Colton took off on his own. There was an initial hand up to hold him, but the signal to go followed before Romain had cleared the front of Herta’s car. It happens to the best of teams, and Colton’s crew is damn good.
Q: I’m a lifelong NASCAR/Hendrick Motorsports fan, dating back to my childhood as a diehard fan of Jeff Gordon. What could be the odds that something like the Larson Indy 500 deal for next year leads to Hendrick Motorsports branching out from just NASCAR, and maybe fielding a full-season IndyCar entry?
Kevin, Arizona
MP: I like where you’re going with this. Rick Hendrick loves racing. He might be best known for NASCAR, but he’s not a stock car guy who dabbles in other series; when he’s gone sports car racing like he did with a factory Corvette GTP team in IMSA in the mid-1980s, it was a fully blown effort. Same with the Garage 56 program he’s running at Le Mans — I’m typing while an hour into my flight to France where I’ll be working with the G56 team — where he’s all-in and adding another giant race to his resume. Can’t say if Hendrick is headed to full-time in IndyCar, but it doesn’t seem like a complete fantasy.
Q: Wondering if Santino Ferrucci is on a multi-year deal? Any idea if he will be on the radar for another team?
Pistol Pete
MP: Most deals, even if it’s a one-year, come with a team-based option for a second or third. I don’t know what he’s got with Foyt, but he’s good for them and I’d imagine he’ll be welcome there as long as they’re able to surround the 14 car with sponsors. As for other teams’ interest, he’s not a name I’ve heard mentioned so far. RLL has Juri Vips in their family so he might be the first choice if they part with Harvey, but man, he sure was fast when he drove for them in 2021. After that, we might have some other openings where he’d get a look, but they aren’t with teams that are drastically better than Foyt.
Q: Does IndyCar have clear and objective rules on minimum speed through Turns 3 & 4 at Indy on restarts, or on red flags? We all love seeing drivers to race to the finish; however, it’s not much of a competition when the race leader is a sitting duck with one lap to go.
Shashi, Houston, TX
MP: This was more of a one-to-go thing that favored the second-place car than anything else.
Q: I may be in the minority among purists, but I completely support race control’s decision to throw those first two red flags at Indy. Race control’s decision to throw that third… I see both sides of this debate, and I’m going to propose a solution that clarifies the rules, avoids green-white checker, enhances the action, maintains the purity of the race as I see it, and hopefully obviates much of the bitching endemic to this amazing sport.
Here goes:
1) Any on-track incident resulting in a yellow will be upgraded to a red flag with 5-19 laps to go.
2) If a yellow or red is thrown with under five laps to go, the race will not return to green.
3) At four to go, race control throws a double green flag to indicate this is the final green stint.
This is still a 500-mile race. Red flags will not feel more forced/artificial at the very end than they already may. We still get a shootout if the field isn’t spread out. The guarantee of an exciting finish comes from a change of perspective: At four to go, the race may effectively end at any moment, and the announcing should reflect that. It encourages the climactic racing we’ve seen in recent years while also making everybody a sitting duck at the end. It also gets rid of the will-they/won’t-they on throwing a late red.
A related question. You said in your race recap video that throwing that third red made Marcus a sitting duck. He faced the same situation last year and managed to hold off Pato’s lap 199 and lap 200 pass attempts. Did the changes to the aero configuration or the ambient conditions make him more of a sitting duck this year? Is there something else I’m missing?
Ben I., Indianapolis
MP: Thanks for the thoughts, Ben. What made Ericsson’s deal this year different is the single-lap dynamics which I went through in an earlier answer.