Could have, should have, would have, but we ended under green, and that’s what the fans kept asking us every time. “Could have they have called (the red) earlier? Yes. Actually 33 guys are pissed right now and one guy is happy.

“The biggest complaint we have every year was we shouldn’t finish a race under the yellow. But we need to think about the show,” Kanaan said. “Guys like Santino and Marcus are mad, and you have Josef that’s happy. Kanaan on Sunday sympathized with Ericsson and third-place finisher Santino Ferrucci because of the odd one-lap shootout but insisted it was best for the fans. Tony Kanaan won in 2013 under caution, and even though he’s one of the most popular winners in track history, he recognized that some found the finish of his crowning achievement anticlimactic. Ind圜ar said in 2020 there weren’t enough laps remaining to stop the race for a final restart following a crash with five to go four years later, the series now thinks two laps is enough for a red flag. Dixon, a six-time Ind圜ar season champion but only one-time winner of the 500, said this week that the defeats that end under caution are the ones that bother him most. There was no red flag in 2020, when the race ended under caution and was won by Takuma Sato as helpless Scott Dixon had to stay in line with no chance to try a late pass for the win. Since Penske’s first 500 as owner in 2020, both last year and this year have had late red flags to set up a race to the finish. In 107 years, the Indy 500 has ended under the yellow flag or red flag (for rain) just 19 times, but 10 of those endings have been since 2000. “We have a group that is certainly the officials of the track, and to me, we’ve said this before, I think all of you had said, we want to see a checkered flag, not a yellow flag.” “I had nothing to do with (the red flag), obviously,” Penske said.

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