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Indianapolis Star

Why has IndyCar had 1 caution? Drivers weigh in: Indy cars 'aren't fun to drive'

As the IndyCar paddock takes to the track at Barber Motorsports Park this weekend to kickoff the Month of May, the series finds itself on the brink of history, and a quirky piece of it at that. Not since the 1986 CART season has American open-wheel racing witnessed a three-race stretch without a single caution flag, whether it be for a stalled driver in a runoff, a mechanical failure in the middle of the track, an errant piece of debris or any sort of in-race contact. An 85-year-old Mario Andretti (Portland) and 75-year-old Danny Sullivan (Meadowlands and Cleveland) won those races, at a time when 25 of the 27 current full-time IndyCar drivers were not yet born, the fathers of Graham Rahal and Conor Daly were still racing and Roger Penske had only won five Indianapolis 500s. And if series veteran Will Power hadn't made an uncharacteristic mistake just a couple turns into Lap 1 of the season-opening race on the streets of St. Pete on March 2, we'd already be there. For the first time since 1970, this year's IndyCar campaign has opened with just a single caution through three races — one that lasted the first six laps of the season, followed by 249 consecutive green flag laps. Thermal and Long Beach's caution-free stretch marks both the first time in more than four years for a single race to run without a yellow flag and the first stretch of back-to-back events without one, too (both races in the Harvest Grand Prix doubleheader on the IMS road course in 2020 ran caution free). Before the start of this year, 13 races during IndyCar's DW12 era (dating back to 2012) had run caution-free, with just one other two-race stretch in 2012 (Edmonton and Mid-Ohio). As drivers reflect on the oddity, a streak likely to end this weekend at a track that saw four cautions a year ago along with four more spread over the three IndyCar races at the track prior, a slew of theories exist as to why the first three races of the year have been almost completely clean. Among them, the existence of hybrid, which allows for drivers who spin (like Marcus Ericsson at Thermal) or those who run long into a runoff at a street course, to refire their engines and not require assistance from the AMR safety team to be refired, requiring even a brief full-course caution seems plausible, as does drivers' insistence that the series' field is, frankly, more talented, wise and calculated in their driving styles. Some say, too, that this all amounts to a rather large 'coincidence.' I let diehard race fans ask me anything: These are my 5 favorite questions 'I didn't expect this,' points-leader and two-time defending series champ Alex Palou told reporters during last week's Indy 500 open test, regarding the run of caution-free racing of late. 'I think it's a little bit of a coincidence rather than what it's going to be like (long-term). I think we're going to save a lot of caution laps because of the hybrid restart, and I really think it's a coincidence that there hasn't been yellows for multiple (races) in a row. I think we have that coming.' Added Andretti Global's Marcus Ericsson: 'I think the hybrid will change the way the racing goes forward, but I still think it's been a little extreme, because usually you have people hitting the walls and each other, and we haven't gotten that, so I don't know. I think everyone's been responsible this year, but we need some more action, maybe.' Alexander Rossi, Ed Carpenter Racing's 10-year IndyCar veteran, has a bit more frank, complex theory that he believes, or at least hopes, won't be triggered in IndyCar's next two races, both on permanent road courses, but one he expects to rear its ugly head again at the remaining two street course races at Detroit and Toronto. Insider: 3 IndyCar races in, 3 things we learned and 3 questions remaining as season hits high gear As he sometimes is, Rossi was frank on a recent episode of his weekly podcast he co-hosts with Fox IndyCar analyst and former IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe and their goofy, off-the-wall friend and podcast producer Tim Durham: "I really don't like this version of IndyCar …" Rossi said April 17 on "Off Track with Hinch and Rossi," leading into a lengthy, honest, educational rant on the current state of IndyCar's technology and its effect on the on-track product. 'Aside from Will's rare mistake at the start in St. Pete, why there's been no yellows is because no one's driving at 100% anymore. 'Everyone's driving around at 85 to 90 percent, trying to kinda conserve tires but also to hit a fuel number because the alternate tire doesn't last long enough to do anything. This version of IndyCar sucks. It's not interesting. I'm sorry. It's not fun to drive or enjoyable to race. And I'm not saying there can't be good shows or that the race Sunday (at Long Beach) was bad, but the fact of the matter is, there are no yellows because no one's trying, and it's wild to me.' As Rossi, and at times Hinchcliffe, would go on to explain, the state of IndyCar's on-track product when it comes to street courses (as well as uber abrasive, street course-like surfaces like Thermal), boils down to the added weight of the hybrid dating back to last summer (adding a net gain of roughly 100 pounds to an already heavy car) and the wishes IndyCar brass gave to Firestone, the series' longtime exclusive tire supplier over the offseason. That offseason directive from IndyCar, Rossi said, was for Firestone to deliver sets of primary and alternate tire compounds with a much larger difference in their life and grip levels, which in a perfect world, would create comers and goers throughout stints of races where you ideally not only have drivers on differing strategies and different compounds during the meat of a race, but you also have high-action moments where drivers begin to struggle to make their alternates last, as they degrade mid-stint, allowing for potential passing opportunities either from drivers better able to manage their tires or ones on primaries that inherently last longer. Additionally, the series added laps to six races, including five at Long Beach (90 laps) and Toronto (90) and 10 at Mid-Ohio (90) in an attempt to curb teams' attempts at targeting massive fuel saves rather than making one additional stop and running the entire race all-out. 'Using it is really critical': How IndyCar drivers say hybrid could affect 2025 Indy 500 In reality, a car that's become nearly unwieldly to drive due to its weight and that can't, Rossi said, even be driven all out on primary tires without the risk of tires severely degrading before the end of a stint, combined with alternate tires on street courses that cannot last a full, normal length under any circumstance, has left teams back again eyeing fuel-save scenarios with some street races now a few laps longer, to boot. And as drivers tip-toe around the track, making fewer mistakes and causing fewer (or no) cautions, those fuel-saves get more extreme. The alternative, then, is cars running full-bore and requiring an additional stop than those running more conservatively due to tire wear, not knowing if a timely caution will fall and allow them to take that extra stop without losing a gap to their competitors they otherwise can't overcome. 'There's not even a physicality to it anymore,' Rossi said. 'You're just driving around in Zone 2, heart rate-wise, because you can't exert yourself to challenge the car because a) you don't have the fuel to do it, and b) even your primary tire doesn't have unlimited grip, it's good, it's durable, but you can't just drive like an (expletive), because with the extra weight of the car and the demand on the rear tire with the hybrid deploy, you can blow up the (primary tires) as well. 'Ultimately, throughout the entire weekend, you get three laps (during qualifying) where you get to drive the car at 100%, and it does a pretty respectable lap time, and it's nice and fun to drive … For very small glimpses, it's nice and exciting, but it's such a rarity now over the weekend that on the whole, the cars aren't fun to drive.' Who'll win the IndyCar race at Barber?: Schedule, TV coverage, expert prediction, streaming As a road course where tire compounds largely haven't changed from 2024, Rossi said this dynamic from the first three races of the year theoretically shouldn't be as extreme this weekend at Barber, and perhaps IndyCar's caution-free stint will be snapped — 'Lord hope so, for all of us,' he said last week.