Restarts were the main talking point in the NTT IndyCar Series’ world after last Saturday’s (Aug. 17) Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway. The penultimate restart of the 260-lap race around the 1.25-mile oval near St. Louis brought out raw emotion, procedural questions and conspiracy theories over how Josef Newgarden and race control handled lap 252.
Let’s go over what happened and then compare it to previous situations earlier in the race. Newgarden led the field around turns 3-4 and race control turned the green light on as the front of the field exited turn 4 for the restart.
From the onboard camera of second-place runner Scott McLaughlin, we can see that Newgarden accelerates the moment the green light turns on as he enters the frontstretch. Or at least we would see that if McLaughlin’s footage made any of the highlight reel packages put out on social media after the race. The Peacock playback of the race shows McLaughlin’s onboard starting 2:25:38 into the broadcast.
Colton Herta slowed momentarily behind McLaughlin, causing Will Power to do the same. Alexander Rossi in fifth place had nowhere to go and ran over the back of Power’s car. Rossi’s front wheels went airborne as he and Power went to the inside wall. Further back in the field, Romain Grosjean had nowhere to go and hit both cars near the inside wall while Nolan Siegel hit Jack Harvey, sending the Brit to the outside wall.
It was overall a messy restart, but let’s dive a little further into the footage to analyze what happened, which is easy considering that every car in the top five at the time had an onboard camera. Looking at Newgarden’s footage, the No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet seemingly had a momentary drop in speed before accelerating when the green light came on. The light flashed on after Newgarden passed the second patch of grass between the inside of turn 4 and the pit wall.
McLaughlin maintained a constant pace but slightly let off the throttle momentarily before the green light flashed on. There was either very light contact between McLaughlin and Newgarden or there were only a few inches between both cars before the eventual race winner accelerated away.
Herta had some distance between himself and McLaughlin and was accelerating before the green light came out. After the green light comes on, Herta momentarily falters before hitting the accelerator, maybe from him letting off the throttle.
Moving back to Power’s onboard, the Australian accelerated before the green light shined and then the 2018 Indianapolis 500 champion backed off. Rossi then immediately hits Power’s car. Rossi’s onboard shows him accelerating when the green light is on and then hitting Power’s car.
That’s what the video footage shows from that restart. Let’s look at what happened on other restarts in the race.
On lap 14, McLaughlin led the field back to the green flag following the Ed Carpenter and Katherine Legge collision. McLaughlin accelerated in the middle of turns 3-4.
On lap 26, David Malukas accelerated just before the end of the large patch of grass in turn 3 on the restart following the incident involving Rinus VeeKay, Conor Daly, Kyle Kirkwood and Grosjean.
On lap 96, Power led the field to green following the yellow for Kyffin Simpson‘s crash. Power accelerated nearly in the same place McLaughlin did on the restart from lap 14.
There seems to be a pattern forming.
On lap 206, Power led the field to green following the yellow for Newgarden’s spin off of turn 2. Power accelerated almost exactly where he did on the previous restart.
On Lap 254, Newgarden accelerated in nearly the same place Power did when the No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet led the field to green.
So to summarize all of the above restarts, all race leaders accelerated either in the middle of the corner or just before the large patch of grass inside of the apex curb ended, except when Newgarden led the field back to green on lap 252.
The rest of the field had reason to be upset with Newgarden. But let’s also look at the rulebook.
IndyCar dictates in rule 7.7.1.3:
“The leader is required to maintain the pace lap speed until reaching the restart zone designated by INDYCAR when the leader shall accelerate smoothly back to
racing speed and the Green Condition will then be declared.. The location of both the restart zone and designated restart line (Road/Street Course Events only) shall be announced during the Competition Meeting.”
It’s clear from hearing the onboard that Newgarden maintained his speed throughout the exit of the corner, but one can hear the revs on Newgarden’s engine drop ever so slightly for just a split second before he accelerates away. But that brings up the question again, why was Newgarden waiting so long to accelerate on the restart?
It might have been better for race control to wave off the restart and tell Newgarden to accelerate earlier in the turn or else face relegation to the tail end of the longest line if he did that again.
The restart in question was the only one that caused an accident. It was the only restart where the leader accelerated in a place other than the middle of turns 3-4.
And we all saw what happened as a result.
Christopher DeHarde has covered IndyCar racing and the Road to Indy for various outlets since 2014. In addition to open wheel racing, DeHarde has also covered IMSA and various short track racing events around Indiana. Originally from New Orleans, DeHarde moved to the Indianapolis area in 2017 to further pursue a career as a motorsports writer.