INDIANAPOLIS (Tuesday, May 12, 2026) – INDYCAR and INDYCAR Officiating have announced an operating practice and process update following a review of the on-track incident involving car No. 20 during the Saturday, May 9 race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
On Lap 21, car No. 20 lost power and stopped on the front straightaway on drivers’ right of the track – off the racing line. Course marshals followed standard flagging protocol and deployed a standing yellow condition at Marshal Panel 14, with a corresponding waving yellow condition at Marshal Panel S/F (start-finish) to alert competitors to the stationary car. The escalation to a full course yellow (FCY) was made on Lap 22 as the driver began to exit the race car.
Following race control practice, the assessment of whether and when to escalate a local yellow to a FCY included the weighing of the following standard factors: driver egress, vehicle position, recovery vehicle access, safety team locations, laps remaining and the timing of approaching traffic to the incident. Additional factors on timing of a FCY also included pit windows and the running order of cars on track.
Effective immediately, INDYCAR Officiating will no longer take into consideration pit windows and the running order of cars on track before deploying a FCY. While there is no change to local yellow procedures, initiation of a FCY will be based primarily on: driver status, vehicle position and condition, the location and readiness of safety personnel, recovery access, and the speed differential between affected cars and approaching traffic.
“The Lap 21 incident on Saturday made clear that there needs to be a cleaner standard for how race control moves from a local to a full course yellow,” INDYCAR Officiating’s Independent Officiating Board chair Raj Nair said. “INDYCAR Officiating, with INDYCAR’s full support, has made this change of approach to ensure that the only inputs to the full course yellow escalation are safety ones. Streamlining the assessment will also save time as competitive considerations are no longer a factor.”
Added INDYCAR President J. Douglas Boles: “The most important job in race control is to ensure the safety of our drivers, crews, safety workers and fans. Saturday highlighted that we must not waver from that central mission and aligning everyone on that philosophy was critical to discuss over the last 48 hours. The Independent Officiating Board, the new managing director of officiating, race director and INDYCAR are all in agreement and the metrics used to determine when to initiate a full course yellow will now ensure that when there is any risk to driver safety that race control will initiate a full course yellow.”
The race result from Saturday’s race on the IMS road course stands as posted. The updated flag escalation standard has been communicated to teams and drivers.
The next NTT INDYCAR SERIES race is the 110th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge Sunday, May 24. Coverage begins at 10 a.m. on FOX, FOX Deportes and FOX One. Audio coverage is available via INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls on SiriusXM channel 218 and the INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA.
