After last weekend's Honda GP of Alabama, Target Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon, who finished second to Team Penske's Will Power, has expressed criticism of Power's defense of the lead on the decisive final restart, and reiterated his view in subsequent comments to the media.
"Yeah, of course," Dixon replied when asked whether he still felt that Power had intruded into the Ganassi driver's line. "And Brian [Barnhart, IndyCar director of competition] as usual does nothing about it. So, if they're going to implement these rules and tell you in the drivers' meeting that the person on the left has to be to the left center of the line, then enforce it. At least tell them.
"I spoke to Will after the race, and he said, 'Well, I never heard anything on the radio.' But if you look at the restarts, I'm pretty much on the grass almost. And he's even over the center line, on the right part of the center line.
"I know why he's doing it. He's trying to get out of the dirty side. But you can't have the best of both worlds. If you're going to pick the inside and then run the car on the right that's not how it should be. All in all, I don't think it would change much, but I think it's a disaster waiting to happen."
Power was adamant that he did nothing wrong, but added that he felt that he was owed a little payback after Dixon's teammate Dario Franchitti had aggressively defended his lead on a restart at St. Petersburg.
"I think that the rule is that you can be anywhere on the track after the start/finish line. Simple as that," he said. "That's what I was told on the start/finish line.
"I was told on the radio he was upset with me for putting him almost in the grass. I would have given him more room. I didn't realize that's what the problem was. All he did is come up beside me and take a big weave at me. If they told me what the problem was, I would have helped him out there.
"We were both going at it there. Fans love that sort of thing. You've got to have a bit of friction between drivers, you know? I gave him one back with the hand like, 'What?' I'm sure if he's leading on the restart and I'm next to him, he's going to crowd me now. But I owe Dario one as well for driving me into the wall last week. It goes in a circle here."