IndyCar's push to pass rule change sparks driver confusion, ethical debate

INDIANAPOLIS – By changing its push to pass guidelines, IndyCar has only created more confusion and controversy. On Tuesday, IndyCar announced it will now allow drivers to use push to pass — a feature that adds a 60 horsepower boost for up to 200 seconds per road and street courses — on restarts, which was previously not allowed. Drivers still can’t use push to pass at the start of races, and they must pass the alternate start-finish line on restarts before using it.

The midseason rule alteration came after another push to pass issue arose at April’s Grand Prix of Long Beach, where drivers were given access to push to pass on a Lap 62 restart when they weren’t supposed to. Twelve of the 24 drivers on track used it illegally, but starting this weekend, that move will be allowed. Along with the rule change, IndyCar Officiating — the independent organization in its first season — announced a “responsibility update” for push to pass.

A news release from IndyCar Officiating said IndyCar will now “place the burden on competitors to ensure Push to Pass is not used at restricted times. ” IndyCar will update its Controller Area Network (CAN) to provide individual messaging, and an additional software engineer is to monitor outgoing CAN messages and push to pass. At Thursday’s news conference ahead of the Sonsio Grand Prix, the top five drivers in the IndyCar standings — Alex Palou (Chip Ganassi Racing), Kyle Kirkwood (Andretti Global), David Malukas (Team Penske), Pato O’Ward (Arrow McLaren) and Christian Lundgaard (Arrow McLaren) — still didn’t understand the change.

“If IndyCar (expletives) up again and I press the button, I get penalized? ” questioned Palou, who won at Long Beach after being one of the 12 drivers to use push to pass. Palou was not yet aware of the responsibility update, and the four-time IndyCar champion was not in favor of how IndyCar shifted the burden to its drivers.