INDIANAPOLIS — Another year, another red-flag controversy at the Indy 500.
Marcus Ericsson said IndyCar’s decision to throw a third red flag, setting up a one-lap shootout to finish the biggest motorsports race on the planet, was “not fair and not safe.”
“I don’t think that’s the right way to do it,” said Ericsson, who finished second to Josef Newgarden after losing the lead on the restart. “It was not enough laps to do it. I know we want to have a green-flag finish, and that’s great for the fans. It’s fantastic. But the way that crash (on the previous restart) happened, it was not enough laps to do what we did, in my opinion.”
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This was the third time in four years that the Indy 500 has seen a debatable finish due to the decision to either throw a red flag or let the race finish under caution. Unlike NASCAR, the Indy 500 has no overtimes or “green-white-checkered” finishes; once the race distance reaches 500 miles, it’s over.
Traditionally, that meant a late caution for a crash in the final laps would result in the race’s ending under yellow, with the cars slowly pacing the 2.5-mile track until the scheduled distance was met.
But in 2020, there seemed to be a chance for IndyCar to do something different. In that race, driver Spencer Pigot crashed with five laps to go. Instead of throwing a red flag at the time — which would have also required a lengthy repair to the pit road attenuator — IndyCar’s race control had the final laps run out under caution.
IndyCar sent out the following statement after that decision: “IndyCar makes every effort to end races under green, but in this case following the assessment of the incident, there were too few laps remaining to gather the field behind the pace car, issue a red flag and then restart for a green-flag finish.”
In the 2020 race, there would have been one lap remaining to finish the race, and that was deemed unworkable. This year, however, IndyCar opted to end the race with a one-lap shootout.
Of the 107 Indy 500s that have been run, Sunday’s race was the first to have multiple red flags for crashes (there were three red flags this year).
Ericsson’s criticism stemmed from the way the final laps unfolded. The cars were already in the pits under red with two laps to go, which meant the starter had to throw the green and white flags at the same time when the field came back around to the start/finish line.
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Cars typically get time after a red flag to warm up their tires instead of restarting right away on cold tires, which Ericsson thought was a bad call.
But other drivers applauded the move, as they did last year when there was a red flag with six laps to go, because they felt the more than 300,000 fans in attendance deserved to see a finish under green if possible.
“We need to think about the show,” said Tony Kanaan, who finished 16th in his final Indy 500. “The biggest complaint we had every year was we shouldn’t finish under the yellow. … Look at this place. Do we really want to finish under yellow with all those people out there?”
Kanaan won his only Indy 500 in 2013, when Dario Franchitti crashed with four laps to go and IndyCar opted not to throw the red flag. The race finished under yellow, and Kanaan recalls “everybody hated it.”
Third-place finisher Santino Ferrucci was tearful and shaking after the race, upset he missed out on a chance to win his first Indy 500. But he wasn’t upset by IndyCar’s decision to set up the one-lap shootout.
“IndyCar is doing the right thing,” Ferrucci said. “I’m not going to knock them for going red and giving us all a chance. What are you going to do? You want to finish under green for the fans, which we did. At the end of the day, it’s about the fans.”
Other drivers, like Alexander Rossi, said they were neutral on whether IndyCar should have thrown the red flag at the end.
“I wasn’t going to win anyway, so I don’t care either way,” Rossi said. “It’s irrelevant to us. It’s not like we were leading or anything.”
Though Newgarden’s team owner, Roger Penske, also owns IndyCar and Indianapolis Motor Speedway — and his car benefited from the call — Penske reiterated the race control group operates independently.
“I had nothing to do with it, obviously,” Penske said.
(Photo: Michael Conroy / Associated Press)