Helio Castroneves is the most tenured Indy 500 competitor in the current IndyCar field, and he has asked for more clearly defined rules surrounding the final laps of the historic event.
His comments come after last year’s race ended in unprecedented fashion, with a red flag being displayed with just two laps remaining.
That stoppage allowed time for a crash to be cleaned from the front stretch and prevented the race from finishing under caution, but also meant that the race was restarted with just one circuit of the famous oval left to complete.
The decision to red flag the race so late was unexpected in the moment, as the standard procedure was to have one or two warm-up laps following a red flag, which would have pushed the lap count past the end of the race distance before any racing could be done.
Instead, drivers were only given a single partial lap to get ready for the final one-lap sprint, and Josef Newgarden was able to get past Marcus Ericsson in the lone racing lap to take his first victory at the historic oval.
That sequence of events has prompted Castroneves, who has taken part in 23 Indianapolis 500 races and has won four of them, to call for a defined procedure should a late caution happen in future races.
“The Indy 500 I believe we should have some sort of – if you’re five laps to go or three laps to go or one lap to go, we should draw a line,” said the veteran. “I would say last year was kind of unexpected. Nobody wants to turn out to be okay.
“But I remember going through the field, and the green flag was thrown [for the final restart], and I was still in Turn 3. It was sort of like rushed.
“I feel if we just set up, which gives everyone not only the drivers, strategists, the fans, understanding if lap X – I don’t know, two laps to go, one lap to go, whatever it is, the race is over because that’s the rules.
“That I would like to be more clarified, that if we’re going to come up with something, we should just determine it.”
Castroneves made clear there are not wholesale rule changes that need to be made in the series, and he is only concerned with having more defined policies around late-race procedure.
“All the rest of [IndyCar’s ruleset], I believe it’s working,” continued Castroneves. “The series is working extremely well. We talk about different qualifyings, have three groups now instead of only 12 cars and 12 cars in two groups.
“But in terms of technical parts and package, I do believe, and I know, we’ll have one of the best races out there. It’s so competitive. It’s incredible, the times and the difference. I would not change the rules in that aspect. I believe we should keep them.”
Castroneves has taken on an ownership stake in Meyer Shank Racing this season, but will still compete as a driver in the upcoming 108th running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 26.
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