IndyCar rule change causes chaos

IndyCar

IndyCar rule change causes chaos

The drivers are not happy

By Sam Cook.

Monday 11 May 2026 23:00

A revised IndyCar rule has sparked confusion across the paddock, with drivers among those trying to get to grips with the latest change to a familiar system.

The championship has used push-to-pass since 2009, with the steering wheel button giving drivers an additional 60 horsepower for up to 200 seconds on road and street circuits this season.

Until now, drivers were not meant to use it on race restarts, but controversy erupted at the Grand Prix of Long Beach when push-to-pass was accidentally made available on a Lap 62 restart despite the rule saying it should not have been.

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12 drivers utilised this mistake from the racing series, and they then named the drivers, before revealing that if such an incident happens again, then drivers will be punished for it.

This sent four-time IndyCar champion Alex Palou into a spiral in a recent press conference which included the top-five in the current IndyCar standings.

"If we press it and it works because someone else does a mistake, we get penalised?", the Spaniard continued, before his rival Christian Lundgaard replied: "Yeah, because you’re not supposed to be able to use it until the alt start-finish."

IndyCar change push-to-pass rule

Despite the surprise of Palou about the rule, earlier this week, IndyCar announced a change to the rule, meaning that push-to-pass can now be used on race restarts. When the squabbling drivers were told this, the conversation switched more onto who was to blame for using the button when it wasn't allowed.

Palou actually won April's race, and used his push-to-pass for 15.1 seconds when he wasn't supposed to, the second largest amount of time of all the offending drivers.

"I pressed it three times, and I’m surprised I didn’t press it more," Palou said. "I’m very surprised, as well, that they pinpointed every single car that used it when it was not our fault, it was IndyCar’s fault."

His rival Kyle Kirkwood then said: "Alright, let’s set the record straight, everybody would have used if they’d known it was active. Every driver would have. I wish I would have known it was on, because I would’ve used it."

McLaren's Pato O’Ward then said: "False! I got told... No, I did not use it."

Kirkwood replied: "Why? You were told it was on," to which O'Ward rather proudly stated: "Well because you know the rule, man."

IndyCar Alex Palou