Beautiful Barber Motorsports Park near Birmingham, Alabama is the site of round three for the IndyCar series this weekend. Imagine a beautifully-manicured golf course with a very challenging 2.38-mile, 17-turn race course that also features plenty of elevation changes. That’s Barber, and it presents a great opportunity for Will Power to continue his early-season success.
Power won at the season opener in St. Pete and was runner-up at Long Beach. The Aussie also has a good history at Barber, with two victories and two pole positions in the four previous races. He also posted the best time during the preseason testing session.
Falling off the wave of momentum seems unlikely for Power, but there are a few other drivers who could challenge him this weekend. Defending series champion Scott Dixon has finished second in each of the four previous races held at Barber and has shown himself capable of winning at the first two races this season. Power’s Penske teammate, Helio Castroneves, has finished third the last two seasons and should also have a strong race day. And you can’t count out last year’s pole sitter and race winner Ryan Hunter-Reay.
Oakville’s James Hinchcliffe needs to have a positive outing after two disappointing events to start the year. Barber doesn’t hold good memories for Hinch: last year, he watched most of the race from the infield, completing only three laps after contact knocked him out of the race.
Two weeks ago at Long Beach, Power and RHR were at the centre of attention when contact once again became the topic of conversation around IndyCar. Hunter-Reay attempted to overtake Josef Newgarden for the race lead and the ensuing contact between the two collected five other cars, including Hinchcliffe. Afterwards, Hunter-Reay halfheartedly admitted he made a bad decision.
Power then made a high-risk attempt to pass Simon Pagenaud. Realizing he’d made a mistake, he attempted to back out of it but still made contact with the car ahead and sent Pagenaud into the tires. No penalty was given to Power. This, combined with the messy restart in St. Pete, had some chirping that Power was being given preferential treatment.
Drivers are also now complaining that they’re not sure what qualifies as an infraction worthy of punishment.
Race director Beaux Barfield explained it to me quite simply: contact will be penalized if it is deemed to be negligent or reckless. While Power’s move at Long Beach was unlikely to be successful it wasn’t deemed negligent or reckless by three officials that reviewed the incident.
After plenty of consultation and input from drivers, IndyCar is trying to be less intrusive when it comes to punishment and enforcement, instead wanting drivers to take responsibility for their actions and respect one another. To use the Long Beach example, IndyCar would like to get to a point where Power realizes that his maneuver can’t be successful, so he doesn’t make the attempt to begin with.
The drivers will need time to adjust to this kind of change before we can decide whether it’s successful. Remember when the NHL tried to change the rules on obstruction? Lots of griping and spouting off about not knowing what was or wasn’t a penalty, but that’s all in the past now.
It’s the same principal here and we’re going through the learning process. Ultimately, this approach may not work as planned, but a little patience is in order right now. If this does get sorted out, it could make for even better racing.