Second Thoughts: No More Pushing Limits Of Push-To-Pass In INDYCAR

The best thing about the push-to-pass controversy in Long Beach is that the rules have changed and drivers won’t have to wonder if they should try to break the rules. Because that’s what it really came down to — whether a driver had to try to break the spirit of the rule while also avoiding violating the rule. Push-to-pass gives a driver an extra 50 horsepower. Drivers get 150-200 seconds of it for a road-course or street-course race. The rule has been that it is supposed to be disabled on their vehicles on all restarts (except if the restart comes with two laps or one lap left in the race) and then enabled once a driver gets to the alternate start-finish line after the restart (so typically almost a full lap). INDYCAR software enables and disables the system. At St. Petersburg in 2024, the Penske cars had it enabled on restarts. INDYCAR found that Team Penske had manipulated the system, allowing push-to-pass to be enabled on restarts and both Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin used it to a competitive advantage. Newgarden, who had won the race, and McLaughlin were disqualified. At that time, there was the question about why drivers would push the button for the boost if they knew it shouldn’t have been enabled? And in a wider view, do drivers push the button just to see if it works? Well, we got at least some of that answer this week. At Long Beach, an INDYCAR software malfunctioned and did not disable the push-to-pass for the lone restart in the race. Of the 25 drivers, 12 used it. Considering the rules didn’t prohibit pushing the button, it is hard to blame those drivers. What’s the harm in pushing it to see if it works, to see if there was a malfunction in the INDYCAR system or INDYCAR simply activated it earlier than it should have been activated? Now there is harm. The rules have changed. Previously the rule stated: “[Restarts] will have the Push to Pass system disabled and will be enabled for a given Car once that Car reaches the alternate Start/Finish line.” INDYCAR re-wrote the rulebook to add this: “It is the sole responsibility of the Competitors to ensure that Push to Pass is not utilized during any period where prohibited. Any successful utilization of the Push to Pass during such periods, regardless of INDYCAR signal status, is prohibited and subject to penalty.” Pretty clear. Push the button when you’re not supposed to and if it works, you will be penalized. If this had been in the rulebook since the beginning, there would have been clear indication of if the drivers themselves intentionally broke a rule or not. Is this vindication for the Penske drivers? A little in the sense that if anyone thought that no driver pushed the button just to see if it would work, that was proved otherwise. But Penske still had a system that overrode the INDYCAR software designed to disable the system, so those penalties were certainly just. There is no exoneration. Should the drivers who did use it and Long Beach have faced penalties? No. INDYCAR made the right call, as it was the league’s software error that enabled the system. INDYCAR should be glad that there was only one driver who actually made a pass using it, so there weren’t a bunch of questionable results. INDYCAR also did the right thing in releasing the names of drivers and how long they used it. That now keeps anyone from wondering who used it and who didn’t. It is interesting that both Alex Palou (who used it) and Will Power (who didn’t use it) both said that there should be no penalties a week prior to the list being released. Palou would obviously say he wouldn’t want penalties, but Power had no reason to not give his true feelings considering no Andretti Global driver used the system. Whether the fact that drivers can now use the system on all restarts is a good thing will be determined by the quality of the racing. It certainly doesn’t hurt to try, especially because it makes the rule much more simple and drivers don’t have to worry about violating push-to-pass on every restart. Sometimes life is messy, and this has been a messy path. Hopefully, the mess is behind INDYCAR on this one.