INDYCAR and INDYCAR Officiating have announced a change to the officiating procedure of escalating a local yellow to a full course yellow, according to a release on May 12.
According to the release, IndyCar officiating will no longer weigh the factors of pit windows or the running order before escalating a local yellow to a full course yellow. Initiation of a full course yellow will now be decided by driver status, vehicle position and condition, the location and readiness of safety personnel, recovery access, and the speed differential between approaching and affected traffic. There are no changes to local yellow procedures.
This change comes after an incident at the Sonsio Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on Saturday, May 9, when the No. 20, piloted by Alexander Rossi, lost power and stalled on the frontstretch on lap 21. The course marshals followed standard protocol and deployed a local yellow; the escalation to a full course yellow did not happen until lap 22 when Rossi had exited the car.
“The Lap 21 incident on Saturday made clear that there needs to be a cleaner standard for how race control moves from a local to a full course yellow,” INDYCAR Officiating’s Independent Officiating Board chair Raj Nair stated. “INDYCAR Officiating, with INDYCAR’s full support, has made this change of approach to ensure that the only inputs to the full course yellow escalation are safety ones. Streamlining the assessment will also save time as competitive considerations are no longer a factor.”
INDYCAR President J. Douglas Boles voiced: “The most important job in race control is to ensure the safety of our drivers, crews, safety workers and fans. Saturday highlighted that we must not waver from that central mission, and aligning everyone on that philosophy was critical to discuss over the last 48 hours. The Independent Officiating Board, the new managing director of officiating, race director and INDYCAR are all in agreement and the metrics used to determine when to initiate a full course yellow will now ensure that when there is any risk to driver safety that race control will initiate a full course yellow.”
The next scheduled NTT IndyCar Series race is the 110th running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge on Sunday, May 24. Coverage of the event will begin at 10 a.m. ET on FOX with radio coverage on SiriusXM.
Logan Kendall joined the Frontstretch team in 2025 as the Tuesday news writer and eventually branched out into assisting with Frontstretch's social media and video team operations as well. Outside of motorsports, he has an interest in history, meteorology, and government.
I guess the easy fix for not messing up pit strategy is to not allow cars to pit under yellow unless they are damaged or out of fuel? This way every pit stop happens under green for every team. Then it doesn’t matter to pit sequence when the yellow comes out.
Jeremy, hoping you see this. In a similar thread recently, I indicated I thought the new officiating team was only for administering penalties. I was 100% wrong. Was just reading a little more on what happened. The independent board also oversees cautions. Clearly, I am as ever, an idiot.
That is interesting. I wasn’t 100% clear on the changes myself, so don’t beat yourself up too bad. Good info to know going forward! Most importantly, I hope the independent board learns from this and does better going forward.
Just glad you saw it. I hate it when I indicate something that’s wrong.
I have always thought that determining when to throw a yellow based on pit strategy was a form of race manipulation. Over time racing series adopted unwritten rules to try and not screw teams during pit cycles. But is that the right way to officiate a race? I don’t think so. But then again, I’m not a big fan of closing and opening pit road depending on what’s going on in the race.
Race controls only job is to ensure a safe race, even if its to the detriment of some. They should throw the yellow when its a safety issue and get right back to green when the track is clear and safe to race on. If that means a lap or 2 after a spin, so be it.
Fans want to see green flag racing, not holding a restart so everyone can get their pit stop in. Pit stops should all be part of race strategy. I’m sure I’m in the minority on this, but this is how races used to be run.
I agree. Either there’s a track hazard, or there isn’t. Pit cycles (and anything else) should have nothing to do with throwing a caution. If it warrants a caution, throw it as soon as the hazard is identified. Only exception I see is holding a caution until cars are approaching the hazard. This, I have no problem with.
Also agree on closure of pit road. Unless there’s a hazard which makes pitting a danger, leave it open, rather than running a bunch of extra laps under caution.
Embarrassing this even got to this point. A driver/car stranded on a 170mph+ straightaway, and we’re worried about messing up pit strategy?