The post-race discussion about the Long Beach Grand Prix should be about IndyCar stars Scott Dixon and Simon Pagenaud and the battle these two title contenders waged, and about Pagenaud’s first win for Penske Racing. Instead it’s about IndyCar officials and a soft, inappropriate penalty call on a pit lane infraction by Pagenaud that robbed fans of a battle to the finish and maybe a victory for Dixon.
The key moment came during the final round of pit stops. After completing his final round of service, Pagenaud was trying to exit the pit lane and come out ahead of Dixon who’d already completed his stop. On the exit, Pagenaud turned early and his right side tires crossed the blend line where drivers come back onto the course.
IndyCar officials reviewed video and agreed it was violation of rule 7.10.1.1 “lane usage” but deemed the infraction minor and only issued a warning to the team. They neglected to acknowledge the effect of the minor infraction providing a significant advantage to Pagenaud, as he was able to return to the track ahead of Dixon.
Once again passing proved next to impossible for IndyCar drivers and with the race running caution free the field never bunched up for restarts to even allow for a decent opportunity to improve your position.
I’ll leave the conspiracy theories aside, but once again the focus isn’t on the drivers, teams, competition or events but instead on officiating and how penalties and infractions are ruled upon. Granted, fans of every sport complain about the refs (have you watched the Stanley Cup Playoffs?) and no one wants officials to decide the outcome. But by not making the appropriate call during the final round of pit stops they essentially did that anyhow.
There are times when discretionary calls need to be made but the pit lane blend line is in place for safety reasons. It keeps drivers from moving across the track into the racing line with a huge disparity in speed. According to the rule book, officials are allowed discretion on the penalty imposed, but they shouldn’t be able to decide the outcome of the race because they give a driver a pass, especially on a safety violation.
IndyCar drivers are becoming more vocal in their criticism of the current aerodynamic package. Some said they were bored driving the 80 laps around the Long Beach circuit. If they’re not engaged, why should the fans watch?
Some positive news is that Canadian James Hinchcliffe had his best weekend of the season. He was the top qualifying Honda starting the race seventh. Hinch fell back a couple of spots during the first round of pit stops when he was boxed in and forced to wait to exit so as to avoid contact with Carlos Munoz. But the SPM driver continued to push for the balance of the race and collected an eighth-place result, his best finish of the season. Definitely something to build on as the IndyCar series gets right back in action this coming weekend at Barber Motorsport Park in Alabama.
