Count Graham Rahal as one of the drivers that isn’t in favor of the latest overtaking rule in the IndyCar Series.
On Tuesday, IndyCar Officiating announced its findings and updates following a software failure of push-to-pass in the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. There were 12 cars, including the #15 Rahal Letterman Lannigan Racing Honda driven by Rahal, found using overtake on a restart on Lap 62 of 90. No one was penalized for pressing the overtake button. Even more, moving forward beginning with this weekend’s round at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, the rule has been rewritten and will now see push-to-pass available for restarts. However, it will still not be allowed for the initial start of the race.
For his part, Rahal would like answers to his involvement as his lone hit of the push-to-pass button also showed zero seconds of usage. Long Beach race winner Alex Palou (three hits for 15.1s) and runner-up Felix Rosenqvist (three hits for 18.5s) were at the top of the released list of those deemed to use the overtake on the restart.
“IndyCar also announced that I hit the button for 0.00 seconds, so explain that to me,” Rahal said. “I would say that means I didn’t use it. Yeah, I don’t know what the hell that is.”
But how does Rahal feel about the rewritten rule?
“Anyway, I’m not a fan,” he said. “I’m not a fan. Yes, it’s not available on the initial start, but it’s available on the restarts. Yeah, I’m not a fan. We’ll just leave it at that.”
It’s certainly a hot topic of conversation to see push-to-pass being allowed on restarts. In 2024, Josef Newgarden was disqualified from his season-opening win at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg after illegally using the push-to-pass boost on race restarts, which was found to be from a Team Penske software glitch that filtered to teammates Scott McLaughlin and Will Power; the only driver of the three to not have violated use. That incident, found roughly a month later, marked the beginning of several members of the paddock calling for independent officiating (IndyCar Officiating that was formed in December 2025) separate from team owner Roger Penske, who also owns IndyCar and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Rahal, 37, doesn’t believe the availability of using overtake on restarts will make a significant change to the racing product.
“Particularly at a track like this one this week (IMS road course) and Road America,” Rahal said.
“Everybody’s going to be on the button and everybody’s going to save up to make sure they’ve got button left to use, and I’m not sure that that makes the racing any better. It would be the same if you all weren’t on the button.
“I think they’re trying to get away from the need to police that after what happened with Newgarden and everything else, which I understand that part, but to me the rules are the rules. They’ve always been the rules. I wouldn’t change them. Yeah, that’s all I got to say about that.”
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