IndyCar champion Will Power says too many incidents are going unpunished and only opening the door for more rough racing.
The latest round of the series at Road America was littered with incidents in which no action was taken.
The most significant incident that went unscrutinised involved Ed Carpenter Racing's Rinus VeeKay and Felix Rosenqvist of McLaren.
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VeeKay poked his nose down the inside at a 90-degree turn and made contact with Rosenqvist, forcing him off the road.
VeeKay later copped a penalty for a separate incident for an unsafe release in the pit lane.
Power's teammate Josef Newgarden was another driver who made a forceful pass, which resulted in Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's Christian Lundgaard going off-road.
Later, Newgarden hip-checked series leader Alex Palou.
Another notable incident saw Lundgaard's teammate Jack Harvey step out of line and overtake several cars before the race had gone green.
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Footage of the incident, which wasn't shown on the broadcast, was shared by IndyCar across its social media. That drew criticism from some drivers.
Alexander Rossi retweeted, "So jump starts are now encouraged and celebrated?" to which Scott Dixon replied "Nothing new here mate…"
Those were just a handful of incidents in the race that Power was concerned about.
"I think it comes with this competition. Apart from Palou, it's the most up and down for everyone else," said Power on Dirty Mo Media's Speed Street podcast.
"Everyone else is just fighting for every inch. I've watched some of these races and I'm like 'Hmmm, that's surprising what they're letting go'.
"They're breeding a bit more of this 'Oh yeah, you can totally jump a restart now' and you can be out of line before they say green and go motoring by a bunch of people on the start. Jack Harvey went motoring by me. He might get a penalty, sure enough he didn't."
Power said there is a "grey area" that needs to be resolved.
He believes there is still uncertainty surrounding tit-for-tat exchanges.
https://twitter.com/AlexanderRossi/status/1671264016122146816
Earlier in the year, Colton Herta barged his way past Power who tried to take the place back at the next corner.
However, the Team Penske driver understeered and slid into his Andretti Autosport rival, which resulted in Herta burying himself in the tyre barrier.
In that instance, Power was penalised, but he believes it's not consistent enough.
"That is the question? What is the rule? I saw two incidents. It was actually with Newgarden. He pushed one McLaren guy right out onto the grass and then again with another guy, is that just a thing that you can do and the other guys pays you back at some point? How do we plan this? What is the rule? That is a grey area," Power explained.
"That is a tough area to start policing. I thought the Rinus one, if that's not a penalty – I don't know what happened before, I haven't fully reviewed it – I just saw it and I'm like 'Oh yeah, that guy is definitely going to get a drive-through'."
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Power worries that the standard has been set and drivers will race each other much harder than they're used to as some might seek vengeance.
"I agree, it has got rough," said Power.
"It is ultra competitive. Because I've been around so long, you know if you drive a certain way you will get that back.
"The more respectful you are, the more you'll get that respectfulness back. The more aggressive you are, and if you're a bit unfair, people remember it when they're racing you so they won't do you any favours.
"You're always trying to race people as cleanly as possible. You don't want to ruin someone's day. You always hate that. And a good clean pass without moving someone is the best way to do it."
The IndyCar Series continues at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Monday from 3:30am, live, ad-free, and exclusively on Stan Sport.
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