The IRL is looking into ways to improve the quality of oval racing in the IndyCar Series, according to indycar.com.

Following criticism of the quality of the last ICS round, held at Texas Motor Speedway, Brian Barnhart, president of the Indy Racing league's competition and operations divisions said: “Somewhat surprisingly this year – and probably catching us a little off-guard – it doesn't appear that we have raced as well in terms of overtaking and side-by-side opportunities as we have the last several years. And what catches us a little off-guard is we haven't changed anything aerodynamically.

"I think we're seeing a compilation of several factors that create the perfect storm of parity. It may be at a point where each team is literally maximizing the performance out of the cars. There isn't much left to learn about them, and the fact that they're all performing so closely now has created a situation [where] it's difficult to get overtaking.”

Texas Motor Speedway’s IndyCar races traditionally produced a lot of overtaking, but the race two weeks ago had few on-track passes, with only Marco Andretti’s battle with Danica Patrick, Dan Wheldon and Tony Kanaan keeping the crowd entertained to the checkered flags. The Kansas City race and even the Indianapolis 500 faced similar accusations of single-file racing.

Barnhardt added: “The quality of product we put on the racetrack is very important to us and it's our obligation to look at it. We'll explore all factors and maybe it's time to give some tools and options back to the teams. Now we have everyone in the same car and have Honda as the exclusive engine supplier and we're in the position where we can control the speeds easier than when we were in a competitive environment when we had multiple manufacturers.”