IndyCar Officiating Body Announces Long Beach Push To Pass Findings

Felix Rosenqvist, Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Honda during the NTT INDYCAR Series Acura Grand Prix Of Long Beach on April 19, 2026 in Long Beach, California. (Photo by Perry Nelson/Lumen via Getty Images)

Lumen via Getty Images

After a thorough review of the Push to Pass software failure during the April 19 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, IndyCar Officiating released its findings on May 5.

The Push to Pass system is software controlled and gives each entrant a limited amount of extra horsepower to use in competition. A software failure allowed 12 cars to use in on a Lap 62 restart in the race.

In a statement by IndyCar Officiating, the Push to Pass rule “placed the burden of the Push to Pass system on the series to assure that the software performed properly. As such, all cars that competed on the Streets of Long Beach were deemed legal and using Push to Pass software that was compliant to the rules.”

IndyCar Officiating’s review of the Push to Pass software failure also included the detailed use of by all 12 cars that used it on Lap 62 and revealed the following:

Car No. 3, Scott McLaughlin, Team Penske, 1 use, 3.0 seconds

Car No. 6, Nolan Siegel, Arrow McLaren, 3 uses, 8.0 seconds

Car No. 8, Kyffin Simpson, Chip Ganassi Racing, 2, 12.1

Car No. 10, Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing, 3, 15.1

Car No. 12, David Malukas, 1 use, 6.0

Car No. 14, Santino Ferrucci, 2, 7.0

Car No. 15, Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 1, 0.0

Car No. 18, Romain Grosjean, Dale Coyne Racing, 2, 4.5

Car No. 45, Louis Foster, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 2, 2.5

Car No. 60, Felix Rosenqvist, Meyer Shank Racing, 3, 18.5

Car No. 66, Marcus Armstrong, Meyer Shank Racing, 1, 6.3

Car No. 76, Rinus VeeKay, Juncos Hollinger Racing, 2, 6.0

According to the statement, analysis of the restart again showed that no cars received a position change as a result of the software error with the exception of car No. 66 (Marcus Armstrong), which passed car No. 14 (Santino Ferrucci) despite the fact both cars used it in near-equal amounts.

“Based on the findings and the fact IndyCar Officiating did not view this as a team or driver infraction, no changes were made to the official results.”

Root Cause of the Software Failure

An intense examination of the system revealed that in the moments before the full-course yellow and following the Lap 61 restart, simultaneous CAN (Controller Area Network) messages were mistakenly sent from the IndyCar software to the receivers on the cars on track. The system is designed to only send individual signals to the cars. These signals provide telemetry such as ranking, lap count, gaps, differential to the leader, and Push to Pass information and availability.

The simultaneous nature of the signals – instead of an individual signal – led to the Push to Pass system shutdown, resulting in the cars never receiving the signal to disable Push to Pass. Instead, the system remained available during the full-course yellow and subsequent restart.

NTT Indy Car series driver Alex Palou (10) leads the field for the start of the Sonsio Grand Prix on May 11, 2024, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course. (Photo by Brian Spurlock/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Corrective Code and Measures

Beginning with the event May 8-9 on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, an updated and corrected code will be used for the CAN messages, which includes a “lock” around the sequence of events that writes the message to the server to send to the cars. The new code provides for only one-at-a-time messaging and avoids simultaneous signals. The “lock” is a common industry practice and does not pose any risk to the functionality of the code.

Internal testing of the updated code signal, including testing during the Indy 500 Open Test on Tuesday-Wednesday April 28-29, validated the system and resulted in zero errors.

Subsequent to the code, IndyCar Officiating will utilize an additional software engineer and measures to monitor the outgoing CAN messaging to the cars to confirm and validate its operation and to monitor Push to Pass.

“The Independent Officiating Board would like to thank IndyCar’s software and powertrain engineers who have helped us work through this review,” board chair Raj Nair said. “We believe the protective measures that have been established will ensure there are no more system issues moving forward. Additionally, the board fully endorses the rule change involving the burden of responsibility and also supports the Push to Pass rule update made by IndyCar to allow overtake on race restarts. This has been a comprehensive and thorough process, which has led to a favorable result.”

Because of that, IndyCar has issued a Push to Pass Responsibility Update to its competitors, beginning with the May 9 Sonsio Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course. The rule covers all street and road courses on the schedule.

“Moving forward, beginning with the event this weekend on the IMS road course and for all subsequent road and street circuit races, IndyCar has rewritten the rules around Push to Pass to place the burden on competitors to ensure Push to Pass is not used at restricted times,” the statement said. “In further analysis and discussion with teams and drivers, IndyCar Officiating believes the rule update better serves the point of the rule while also simplifying the interpretation for all competitors.”

The update comes as IndyCar, in a separate announcement, established expanded availability of Push to Pass on race restarts to provide teams and drivers additional tools and overtake possibilities.

Push to Pass rules for the NTT IndyCar Series and INDY NXT by Firestone are effective immediately.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com