IndyCar’s first race with its new full-course caution procedure caused immediate controversy.
After an incident that left Alexander Rossi’s car stranded powerless on the IMS front straightaway in the Sonsio Grand Prix, IndyCar Officiating announced an “operating and process update,” stating that pit windows and the running order of cars won’t affect whether race control — led by race director Kyle Novak — deploys a local caution or full-course caution in given situations.
The change affected the Detroit Grand Prix, the first street or road course IndyCar went to since the procedure change was announced May 12. Race control was quick to deploy full-course cautions, which hurt 2025 Detroit Grand Prix winner Kyle Kirkwood, who typically extends his stints before pitting.
In the second half of the race, Kirkwood had taken the lead from Alex Palou, who led 71 of the race’s 100 laps. Kirkwood and Palou both pitted on Lap 34, but when Palou made his second and final pit stop on Lap 64, Kirkwood remained on track to take the lead. But two laps later, contact between Santino Ferrucci and Rinus VeeKay led to a full-course caution, which closed the pits and left Kirkwood on track.
Palou recaptured the lead after Kirkwood pitted under caution on Lap 69, and Palou won the race with Kirkwood finishing second.
“I know IndyCar said we’re just going to go yellow as soon as a hot dog wrapper blows on the track, but it turns the race into something that isn’t based on merit, and I don’t love that,” Kirkwood’s strategist Bryan Herta said during the caution on Fox. “The last two yellows we had, the incident cleared within seconds. And I just think there’s got to be a middle ground to not ruin the race for people based on something that doesn’t really need to be a full-course yellow.”
On Thursday, Raj Nair, the chairman of IndyCar Officiating’s first-year Independent Officiating Board, said he felt like Novak did an “excellent job” calling the race, and that the first race with the new procedure went how IndyCar Officiating wanted it to go.
“Those weren’t hot dog wrappers on the track,” Nair said. “Those were Indy cars spun out in the middle of a corner that’s a blind corner in an extremely tight course with walls on both sides. So, I don’t think the rule change had anything to do with throwing full-course yellows there. It was entirely based on the nature of the incident and the type of track that we were on.”
Kirkwood said he and the crew on the No. 27 Andretti Global Honda won’t change the length of their stints going forward, even after being burned by it in Detroit. He seems to think that after the backlash from the Sonsio Grand Prix simmers down, race control will reach the middle ground Herta referred to.
“I think probably by now, they’ve probably proved a point,” Kirkwood said. “I think everyone will go back like ‘hey, that was probably a little bit too much,’ and that’s probably what they expect is for us to rein back. There’s a reason we had the procedure in place. If a car is stopped and he’s in a safe position, you leave it green.
“We can’t just race thinking there might be a caution. That’s not the smart way to race. You’ve got to race your race as if it’s going to be green, which we’ve had a lot of green races in recent years. It would be ridiculous to handcuff yourself to a strategy because you’re hoping on a caution. That’s what guys from mid-pack back do, not the leaders.”
However, Nair expects street and road course races to be called largely the same as the Detroit Grand Prix was going forward.
“I certainly respect all the strategists on those pit walls,” Nair said. “They’re the smartest guys that I know and they’ve got tough jobs, but I think that race was extremely well called and it puts safety as the priority, which is exactly where it should be.”
IndyCar returns to an oval with the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 this weekend, so the new procedure won’t reemerge until the Grand Prix at Road America on June 21.
Zion Brown is IndyStar’s motorsports reporter. Follow him at @z10nbr0wn. Get IndyStar’s motor sports coverage sent directly to your inbox with our Motor Sports newsletter. Subscribe to the YouTube channel IndyStar TV: IndyCar for a behind-the-scenes look at IndyCar and expert analysis.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IndyCar’s new full-course caution process to stay the same after Detroit Grand Prix
Reporting by Zion Brown, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
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By Zion Brown, Indianapolis Star | USA TODAY Network
