Honda Indy Edmonton

[TURN3]

It is my understanding that under the rules this cannot be protested.

Sort of a joke fyi. The thing is, you can protest it, spend tens of thousands on legal fees and data acquisition...THEN be told you can't protest it.

[anthonyvop]

You have to wonder what the CAPTAIN is going to do. "OK guys am going to INDY for the 400 have a good race...." HAH. And I know this is a bad infraction because I no likee Helio but wrong is wrong and Barnhart is wrong. I heard RM on Windbag extra suggest that Unser Jr get in their and be the steward and I could not agree more. Get a get great driver in the box and lose BARNEY.

Unser Jr.? Is he serious???

[call_me_andrew]

I'm pretty sure Miller didn't say Jr.

[Mark in Oshawa]

Well, because I was at a lacrosse game playing amateur TV production dude, I didn't see it. However, the calls for Barnhart's head are quite legit. I have thought the last year or so he hasn't seemed to grasp when to crack the whip on the rules and when to shy away from making a call.

Blocking...on an AIRPORT CIRCUIT?????

I dunno...I will watch the highlights tomorrow and maybe have a change of heart, but not likely. The rules may say you cannot block, but of course, they all do it at one point or another, and some; like Danica and Helio have done it pretty obviously. We shall see...but sometimes you live by the sword, sometimes you die by it. If That was PT he tried shutting the door on instead of his teammate, does PT put Helio into the weeds? Someone needs to think of this stuff....

Great finish for PT, and Sato....for not tearing up a race car.

Helio got screwed, but hey, if he is that scared of Power, maybe he needs to learn to outrun him, because if Will Power was faster than you 3 laps from the end, he might have been faster than you 2 and 1 laps from the end. Helio needs to grasp that Will was going to get by....and is 2nd better than the 10th he got.

IT may be a BS call, but you race knowing they have an idiot for a chief steward...

[MDS]

Well, the call is BS... time to bring in someone with credibility. I would think that Barnhart is gone at the end of the season.

KV has 4 cars in the top 10 and for the first time this season the guys in the shop aren't going to thrash to repair a tub or finish a new one in time for the next race... I think they're coming into form, better late than never.

[Dr. Krogshöj]

KV has 4 cars in the top 10 and for the first time this season the guys in the shop aren't going to thrash to repair a tub or finish a new one in time for the next race... I think they're coming into form, better late than never.

Surely, that's going to be the exception rather than the norm. Oh, I see Simona was the latest victim of KV Crashing Technology. Bummer.

[Lousada]

Another over the top call from BB. In F1 teammates get penalised for not racing, and here they penalised for racing eachother. I don't know what's more insane

Still, Indycar desperately needs this controversy. The first 40 laps of green flag was booooring. Penske/Ganassi would have lapped the whole field twice the way it was going. Of course then there is always KV Racing to cause a caution, but why did the victim have to be Simona

[DanicaFan]

Top 15 finish for your girl !!! Niiiiice.

Hey, not bad considering that she had that bad pit stop where they had to raise the car again to tighten up the left rear tire. Plus, she went off in the grass later on and she had minor contact in the incident involving Alex Tagliani and Mario Romancini. She had to go back in the pits and get a new nose on the car.

[speeddurango]

I think this has been a great race politically. Because the fact is that Helio was obviously blocking and is only subject to discussion in terms of different interpretation of rule book in line changing matter. But this whole act would almost definetely play in disfavor of BB's credibility. It would be of a great thing to Indycar once BB leaves his post, and hopefully this is one of the factor that would finally lead to that realization.

[chuck34]

Was it a block or not? The problem with most of the complaints and arguments are that they are based on the viewer's interpretation and judgment of what is a block. But what matters is what the rules say is a block and what instructions were given to the drivers in the drivers meeting. We (and Helio) not agree with that interpretation, but a rule is a rule, and violation warrants a response consistent with the announced penalties.

You are 100% correct (at least as I understand it). The rule said going to that side of the track was blocking. So by the rule he was blocking. However, the rule was just plain stupid and unnecesary. If someone couldn't figure that out before the race, they should have figured it out when they saw it happen. It is stupid for the very reason you state the VIEWERS ALL know it was not blocking. I have yet to see anyone defend the call except on technical grounds. That's hogwash and it's gonna alienate people as believing (rightfully so) that the IRL is a league of stupid draconian rules, not a racing league.

But I do know that touching, grabbing, or pushing an official is a serious violation, regardless of the reasons. Helio also disobeyed an official call to take the drive through. He may not agree with the call, but you don't ignore the officials unless you are willing to face the consequences. IHMO, Helio was out of line in his response after the fact and deserves some penalty. If those 2 events are allowed to go without comment by the league, then I have lost respect for the IRL.

For touching an official he should be sat out for at least one race (maybe the rest of the year), and fined till the end of time. There is no room for that sort of crap, no matter how bad a call that was.