AllRacing

Drivers say IndyCar handled the yellows right at Laguna – mostly

Rinus VeeKay was sitting backwards and stuck in the Turn 3 gravel, and well clear of the corner he’d just left with the assistance of Kyle Kirkwood during Sunday’s IndyCar race at Laguna Seca.

Fellow IndyCar drivers streamed by without any concern about hitting VeeKay’s No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda, as it sat more than 30 feet away from the pavement.

The same could not be said for Marcus Ericsson who managed to spin uphill on the Rahal Straight and come to a halt positioned sideways on the racing surface that leads into the Corkscrew. With the relatively new ability for drivers to start their cars using the energy recovery systems that debuted in June of 2024, IndyCar appeared to give Ericsson extra time to refire his stalled No. 28 Andretti Global Honda before realizing it wasn’t possible.

VeeKay tried to pull away, but was beached in the gravel trap.

Both instances were treated in a similar manner by IndyCar’s race control team, which used local yellows in the moment, but refrained from going to immediate full-course cautions.

It’s a practice the series has employed outside of ovals for many years. Provided the circumstances meet their criteria, race control has made judgement calls on road and street courses – mostly road courses – when a problem occurs on track at a time when enabling a full-course yellow and closing the pits would adversely affect the leaders.

In those select situations like the two witnessed on Sunday, an intentional delay is made before triggering a full-course yellow and the associated closing of the pits to allow the leading drivers to get in, receive fuel and fresh tires, and return to their front-running positions without losing track position to those who pitted prior to the caution and would otherwise have leapfrogged the leaders.

After the race, second-place finisher Christian Lundgaard and third-place Colton Herta shared their views on how the VeeKay and Ericsson issues were handled.

“I think there are pros and cons to it in a sense,” Lundgaard said. “I was definitely driving around thinking, ‘Why is there a car sideways – well, technically backwards going into the Corkscrew – and we’re green for two laps?’ Yes, there’s a local yellow, but if someone isn’t really paying attention, changing a switch on the steering wheel, it can go terribly wrong.

“The one with VeeKay in Turn 3 was more fair in a sense because you see him parked in the gravel. You’re not really going to end up there unless you really aren’t paying attention. I think IndyCar in a sense has been consistent with that. Not necessarily to say that I agree with it, but I do appreciate that they are consistent with it.”

Like the Arrow McLaren driver, Herta benefitted from the delay and got into pit lane and received service – along with race leader and eventual winner Alex Palou – which preserved their ability to reach the podium. When there are incidents on ovals, the series tends to use full-course cautions within seconds of a problem taking place and makes no accommodation for how the timing of the pit lane closure might affect the outcome of the race.

“Yeah, they should keep the pits open as long as they can and allow the leaders to pit at every opportunity,” the Andretti driver said. “I think it’s not fair to be one of the faster ones and qualify well and have your day screwed by a yellow. It’s happened to everybody in this series. But when you run up at the front more consistently, it burns you more often. It’s something that I think is a real plus from IndyCar. I think it’s fair, and I think it should continue to happen.”