“Ind圜ar 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,” the series said in a statement. Ind圜ar broadcast partner NBC Sports was scheduled to shift from the race into an NHL playoff game.Įven if Ind圜ar could have somehow juggled all the factors, there weren’t enough laps remaining for a proper final restart. Pigot needed medical attention and was laying prone on the track before he was treated and released from an Indianapolis hospital. Pigot’s crash destroyed the attenuator at the front of pit lane, a repair that would take at least an hour to complete. The scenario Sunday wasn’t even remotely similar. Hunter-Reay only needed the scheduled 500 miles to collect the checkered flag.
By throwing the red in 2014 and taking roughly 10 minutes to clean the debris, Ryan Hunter-Reay beat Helio Castroneves by 0.06 of a second in one of the closest finishes in Indy history. The series red-flagged the race with seven laps remaining in 2014 to clean an accident scene in what was thought to be an unprecedented call for the Indy 500.Ī red flag brings the race to a complete halt, instead of cars ticking off the remaining laps behind the pace car. There were some who grumbled after Kanaan’s win at being denied a proper finish, and Ind圜ar changed it up the next year. Sato is at least the 11th winner to take the checkered flag under yellow at Indianapolis but first since Tony Kanaan in 2013. “This isn’t the first 500 that’s been flagged under yellow,” noted winning car owner Bobby Rahal. There were plenty who were content with the anticlimactic finish. That is particularly important for the Indy 500, an event celebrated for its rich traditions with no real clamoring for artificial enhancements. Ind圜ar, however, has resisted gimmicks and remained true to racing purity. The two-lap, green-white-checkered rule has evolved since NASCAR began regularly using it in 2004, but it is an accepted norm for that series. The stock car series uses overtime - multiple attempts, in fact - in an effort to end races under the green flag. Who knows how those sun-soaked spectators would have reacted to the late yellow flag that sealed Sato’s win and slammed the brakes on Scott Dixon’s attempt to catch the Japanese star in the closing laps? The caution for a Spencer Pigot crash was called with four laps remaining, just 10 miles from the scheduled finish - too short a distance to set up a shootout.īut that’s not a problem for NASCAR, as noted by fans angered and confused by the ho-hum ending. The pandemic meant the largest venue in the world sat empty, attendance reduced to a socially distanced group of 2,500 at a place that can welcome more than 300,000.
The 104th running of the showcase race was an odd and lonely event even before Takuma Sato took the checkered flag under caution for his second Indy 500 win in four years. Accepting those truths helps understand the unsatisfying finish to “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.” INDIANAPOLIS - Ind圜ar is not NASCAR, and the Indianapolis 500 is not 500-plus some extra miles.
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