The most recent instalment of IndyCar racing at Gateway brought all the action that had been absent from fans’ lives during the summer break.
As if there hadn’t been enough drama in the first 240 laps of the race, it all kicked off further with a chaotic sequence of events in the closing stages.
Triggered by a clash between David Malukas and Will Power, which sent the former slamming into the barriers at high-speed, a caution was forced to clean up the mess.
IndyCar‘s unparalleled level of drama came to fruition again at the restart however, with Alexander Rossi flying over the top of Will Power and sending them both into the barrier.
What does JR Hildebrand think could be changed about IndyCar restart rules?
Most blamed race-leader Josef Newgarden for the clash, blaming his speed and delay in going for causing the hesitation behind.
But former driver JR Hildebrand disagreed speaking on The Race’s IndyCar podcast, insisting that the leader deserves an advantage and that maybe the rules could be tweaked on longer circuits like Indianapolis.
“If there’s something to look at here, it’s like, do you want to change the rules, so that you can’t be going that slow? I’m totally against all of that stuff,” he said.
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“It comes into play more at Indianapolis. Gateway is less of a place where you’re a sitting duck if you’re the leader, just because the straightaway is not as long, so you don’t get a big slipstream on the leader going towards turn one.
“I think the leader – whoever they are, should always have an advantage, and the only way they get an advantage on restarts is by having options that the rest of the cars can’t know exactly how they’re going to approach the restart.”
What else could Josef Newgarden have done?
Josef Newgarden was faced with the prospect of 10 laps to defend the race lead, and a lot of hungry rivals behind him desperate to get the jump.
This was evidence by the crash behind, as a result of drivers behind wanting to gain the biggest advantage that they possibly could from the restart.
READ MORE: Will Power admits he ‘created the yellow’ in Gateway collision with David Malukas
But, as the stewards indicated when they cleared him of any wrongdoing, he kept his speed the same and was fully entitled to manage and hold the pace right until the last second before going.
As Hildebrand suggested, it’s only fair that the leader has an advantage having earned it, and Newgarden was just playing to those rules.
The bigger problem at hand is perhaps the eagerness of cars behind who put their rivals in a potentially dangerous position by trying to gain an edge – something to watch out for as to how IndyCar polices it over the coming weeks.