Scott McLaughlin claims to have support from his peers for his idea to clean up IndyCar restarts.
While his pointed comments were also a function of his frustration at being unable to convert pole position into a win, McLaughlin cited an example where even he dive-bombed a rival upon the waving of the green flag again because IndyCar’s racing rules are something of a free-for-all.
Locations of the start and restart zones are not necessarily the same, and nor does one or the other necessarily coincide with the finish line, with each in a different location at Nashville.
McLaughlin’s suggestion is that passing not be allowed after a restart until, say, the apex of the last corner, somewhat similar to Supercars’ rules which allow overlapping after the apex of the last corner.
He said that he would take his idea to IndyCar President Jay Frye and Race Director Kyle Novak and, addressing the media ahead of this weekend’s Indianapolis road course race, spoke on the subject again.
“Look, we meet every week,” remarked the New Zealander.
“I think there’s things that they want to change during the year and things they don’t want to change.
“At the end of the year we always have a big sit-down with drivers, which is really awesome. They don’t have to do it, but they do it. They definitely do listen to us.
“I wasn’t annoyed at having restarts at the end of the race. I guess you get annoyed when you’re racing up the front, and you just know the cluster our rules create with the way that you can pass basically straight away when a green flag flies.
“There is always the concertina effect, some people get runs, some people don’t, some people jump it nice.
“When you have people that really want to make positions from 20th back and it just causes untimely yellows and then we have red flags and stuff, it’s frustrating for the person at the front. That’s all part of it.
“I just feel like my suggestions were that’s how I’ve done it in the past. That’s how many other categories in the world do it. I think it’s a very simple fix.
“I know for a fact, speaking to other drivers, it’s a popular sort of idea.
“But, it’s up to IndyCar to implement that. I’m sure that all of us drivers will put forward our ideas, for sure.”
McLaughlin does not think IndyCar needs to adopt the NASCAR ‘green-white-chequered’ whereby the race is extended if a Caution period runs into the scheduled final lap.
Instead, he thinks that the approach of red-flagging a race so there is time to finish under green flag within the originally allotted laps is a good enough approach.
It is one which has been used in all three runnings of the Nashville street race thus far and, controversially, three times in this year’s Indianapolis 500.
Subsequently at Iowa, however, IndyCar invoked its ‘abandonment of procedure’ whereby it closed the short oval’s pit lane so as to save time waiting for the field to pack up for the final restart.
“I think what we do now in terms of making sure we finish the race, red-flagging when we can, I think that’s fine,” opined McLaughlin.
“I don’t think a green-white-chequered… I don’t think we have the cars. I think it would be kind of dangerous if you think about it, especially if we’re crashing like they do.
“I think it’s just a quick fix [that is needed] in terms of the just where you position, where drivers can pass when the green flag gets flown.
“Just so you can get the flow of the race going rather than, ‘Okay, it’s green,’ out of Turn 10 for us, the first two or three cars go single-file, but then after that people have got different runs, people coming at different speeds, people see bigger opportunities, have bigger runs to make a pass.
“It’s just a simple fix that would just be equal for everyone, and that’s why I think we should do it.
“I don’t think we should do a green-white-chequered at all, no.”
Practice on the Indianapolis road course starts on Friday at 09:00 ET/23:00 AEST, with Australian viewers able to watch live and ad-free on Stan Sport.
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