I think INDYCAR needs to find a way to keep the pits open under yellow at road and street courses. There have been races every season where a driver lost a likely victory because the race went under a caution right before his pit stop. While you can say the team had the chance to pit the car earlier, races where a caution period produced a random result still undermine the credibility of the series. INDYCAR can provide exciting racing even without caution periods shuffling the running order.
The needs are different for different tracks. On road and street courses as well as on the longest ovals, you can stay on the lead lap after a green-flag stop if you were close enough to the leader. That means you are going to fall behind the pitted lead-lap cars if you stop under the yellow. On short and intermediate ovals you lose a lap or two during a green-flag stop. If you stop under the yellow, the cars that pitted earlier will get a lap back on you but you're still ahead of them.
On road and street courses, the closed pits can destroy your strategy if you had not pitted before the caution came out. Open pits would allow you to lose less track position than if you pit when the pace car has bunched the field. On the other hands, closing the pits is very much necessary on short and intermediate ovals. If you kept the pits open but slowed the cars down when the caution comes out, the cars that pitted under yellow could have gained a lap during a pit cycle on those who pitted under green.
An F1-style virtual safety car procedure is an obvious solution for the road and street courses to keep the pits open when the caution comes out. Instead of rushing into the pits, the cars would be slowed down to a speed safe for the track workers. As the cars that pitted under yellow wouldn't fall into the rear of the pack, the restart order would be more representative of the running order before the pit cycle.
The virtual safety car isn't a completely neutral solution. While closing the pits is costly for drivers who are yet to pit, the virtual safety car reduces the time lost in the pits compared to a green-flag stop. Pitting under the VSC procedure can help you to overtake another car during a pit cycle and even gain some time.
The virtual safety car reduces also the need for the physical safety car. It could be used when local yellows don't properly ensure the safety of track workers but it's a short interruption. For longer interruptions I would still use the physical safety car. It would minimize the gains any driver achieved by pitting under the VSC procedure and it would put the restarts on road courses in line with the oval procedures.
Restart procedures another issue
Closed pits aren't the only problem of INDYCAR's caution procedures, restarts are another issue, especially when it comes to lapped cars.
There may be lapped cars between lead-lap cars in restarts. Those cars would have been there even without the caution so they don't really take away from racing. Though sometimes the lapped cars may race aggressively to get back to the lead lap, like Esteban Gutiérrez did at Mid-Ohio last July.
In restarts with less the 15 laps to go, the lapped cars are moved to the back of the field. That is a bit of a strange rule; it feels a bit like creating a close finish, though you can also see it as a way to ensure the lead-lap cars can race without interference from cars that have no chance for a good result.
In a situation more common on ovals, if a caution came out in the middle of a pit stop cycle, you may end up with the lead-lap cars separated by lapped cars. Assuming all lead-lap cars have pitted under the yellow, the cars between the pace car and the race leader receive a wave-by. While some cars get back to the lead lap in the wave-by, they may still be separated from the leading cars by some lapped cars. An example of that is the race leader Simon Pagenaud and the second-placed Will Power being separated by four cars in a restart at Phoenix last April.
Although it may sound artificial, not having lapped cars between the lead-lap cars in the restarts might be better for the racing. In a way, having the lapped cars between protects the cars that had a big lead to the cars behind before the caution came out. Though if the car ahead really is better, it should be able to successfully defend its position.
Of course, if lapped cars are moved from between the lead-lap cars, it will be more difficult to race back to the lead lap. There should be some rule to give those cars a chance to get back to the lead lap, be it like the lucky dog in NASCAR or the wave-by for the lapped cars in F1.
Of those two, I prefer the lucky dog rule because you need to earn it once you get lapped unlike a systematic wave-by. INDYCAR already has, wrongly, a systematic wave-by, allowing you to get a wave-by and pit under yellow. For example, that allowed Tony Kanaan to recover from two laps down to finish second at Texas last June. If the leader pits from behind the pace car, the lapped cars between the pace car and the new leader get a wave-by. That's the standard procedure in different series, though most series give the wave-by only one lap before going back to green, not enabling a stop under yellow.
IMSA has the same issues
IMSA's caution procedures are closely similar to INDYCAR's, making it different from other major sportscar series.
While most international sportscar series have a virtual safety car procedure that allows keeping the pits open throughout a caution period, IMSA closes the pits until the field is bunched behind the pace car. IMSA's procedures make it easier to gain back laps; all you need is to stay out under the caution and if all lead-lap cars ahead of you pitted you'll get the wave-by. If the pits remained open, you could gain back a lap only if you could unlap yourself when the leader has pitted.
Just like in INDYCAR, IMSA's caution rules make it risky to stay out longer than other cars. Your strategy may be destroyed by a caution period before your stop; if the pits remained open you could pit once the caution comes out and you'd lose less track position.
I think IMSA's caution procedures are flawed. IMSA should follow the likes of the FIA WEC and the Blancpain GT Series and introduce a virtual safety car procedure and possibly also local slow zones.
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