The NTT IndyCar Series has announced a few changes for the upcoming 2025 season, including a few related to pit lane.
A major change for this year is that more tracks will have a two-stage pit speed limit that extends to portions of the track outside of pit lane.
A multistage pit speed limit has already been used at certain tracks in recent years.
At Road America, the pit entry has a long section before drivers reach the actual pit boxes, so a higher speed limit was imposed in that relatively safer area in order to keep total pit stop times from being too long.
The ovals of World Wide Technology Raceway and Nashville Superspeedway had similar limits applied at the end of pit lane, when drivers are required to stay off the banking until they reach the back stretch.
New for 2025, two-stage pit speed limits will be added to the entry portion of both ovals listed above as well as Iowa Speedway.
The changes will help to prevent drivers from pushing too hard while entering the pits, which could cause them to slide up onto the banking where other drivers are coming past at full speed.
Overall pit stop deltas may increase slightly from the changes, but the speeds will likely be set near the maximum that the cars could run on the apron, leading to only minor effects.
Hybrid restarts
While drivers are in pit lane, they will also now be able to use the hybrid system to restart their own ICE engines if they stall.
The hybrid components, introduced at Mid-Ohio last season, have been built from the start to allow drivers to restart their car without the need for a separate starter motor to be attached to the flywheel by a crew member.
Drivers were forbidden from using the system on pit lane, however, with the reasoning being that it is harder for people standing in the area to know when a car will launch.
That restriction has been removed for this season, and drivers will be able to more quickly get going again when the stall while trying to accelerate away after a pit stop.
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