[Yannick]

I remember a clean pack race in which drivers showed a lot of respect to each other. That happened at Chicagoland back in 2010 and is remembered for Sarah Fisher having led a few laps.
At Texas, it showed that many of today's drivers are not good pack racers. I feel when it comes to protecting other drivers in such situations, drivers who have run in IndyLights in the past, really are at an advantage over those who haven't. Look at Gabby Chaves. He drove a clean race and finished 5th for a new team in only their 2nd race. How come this guy does not have a full season ride?

The replay I have seen of this past Texas race reminded me most of what I saw when I re-watched an old IRL race from the late 90s that was held at Dover Downs. That Dover race is remembered for being the last IRL start of Dr. Jack Miller who got taken out in a crash of 3 cars, and it was a real "crash fest". Yet, still, there was more green flag racing there than at IndyCar's only visit to NOLA Motorsports Park.

But I digress. At Texas, drivers were way too impatient and not cautious enough. Add to that the fact that both the series and the tire manufacturer didn't prepare near well enough for the new surface. That resulted in too many open variables and an unpredictable level of danger to drivers and machinery which, luckily, only resulted in a hefty repair bill for many of the teams.

Even with the limited amount of tire testing that had happened, a lot of the turmoil on track could have been prevented if there had not been those "competition cautions" to fix the problem with tire wear. Why didn't Firestone just order the teams to bring cars in after a certain number of laps? That could have happened under green flag conditions and would have enabled the field to spread out more, whereas the yellow flag periods just bunched the pack back together time in time again. Sure, it's much easier to organize a full course caution if you are race control than to have to potentially black-flag every car individually for a mandatory tire stop but it would have made for a better and most importantly, a safer race.