IndyCar reintroduced push-to-pass last weekend at Toronto. Was this a good move or not? Well, I was skeptical about reintroducing a somewhat contrived way of promoting overtaking. After all, during the Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park, there was plenty of passing at a course where historically it has been difficult to overtake. At Toronto, since there was no indicator on the broadcast of when push-to-pass was being used, it was difficult to determine the overall effect. We did hear toward the end of the race that Ryan Hunter-Reay had enough of his 100 seconds of push-to-pass time allotment remaining to use it on the main straight for the remainder of the race, effectively making it push-to-defend in his case. Unfortunately the race ended under caution with Hunter-Reay at the front, so we never saw what was to happen in his case. I’d say the final verdict is out for now, but my opinion is that it’s not needed and its reintroduction was a mistake. We’ll see what happens next week at Edmonton. I’d rather see at least 25% more horsepower which would make the race outcomes more dependent upon driver skill.
I’m eager to hear what Robin Miller or a couple of top drivers have to say…