Laguna Seca has seen a thing or two since its construction in 1957, nestled among the dusty, sweeping hillsides between Monterey and Salinas, but not many races around the ‘dry lake’ have been as chaotic or frenzied as Sunday’s IndyCar Series finale, which very much had the feel of ‘School’s Out’ ahead of its five-month off-season.
No fewer than eight caution periods were required for a rash of overambitious lunges and botched overtaking moves, the likes of which wouldn’t have been out of place in the junior formulas.
But, as so often in these unpredictable scenarios, the jigsaw pieces were tossed into the air and landed in the familiar shape of Scott Dixon, the six-time champion, who stroked to his third win in four starts. This was despite a grid penalty for an engine change and a drive-through for causing a collision at the exit of Andretti Hairpin on the opening lap.
That decision incensed him, as have a number of calls from Race Control this season, and another bone of contention has been its restart rules. The stretch of asphalt between the penultimate and final corners was vaguely declared the restart zone and led to a trio of clumsy collisions in the braking zone that brought the yellow back out just seconds after the green had been waved.
“The restarts have been interesting this year,” says Dixon. “Sometimes it's the only advantage you can get, right? You try to jump it. We've seen a lot of that throughout the year.
“I think in the off-season we have to try and figure out a way to do that a bit better. Even if we need to maybe go to no passing until the start/finish line or something. But you don't want to make it boring either.”
Source: Autosport