INDYCAR: Bourdais responds to Power over VSC

The practice with the VSC, which differs greatly from IndyCar's practice under caution, slows the field as it passes through a zone where a stricken car or other problem is being rectified. It effectively freezes the field in place, and maintains the gaps between cars – however big or small – before they exit the VSC section and resume racing. In IndyCar, where VSC has yet to be tried, pit lane is closed for the first lap of yellow and the field is often packed up behind a pace car, which eradicates any gap the race leader has earned.

As Bourdais sees it, the series and IndyCar driver's association should figure out whether the current caution system or something like VSC would be best for all involved.

"It's something everybody needs to discuss," Bourdais told RACER. "We haven't spoken so much since [former president of competition] Derrick [Walker] left the series, what the stance is, [or] where we want to go and what we want to achieve with the yellows. The way it is right now, closing the pits and all, it's really terrible for the leaders.

There's always going to be someone from the back taking a gamble. The one thing to say about that is the race is never straightforward. There are always surprises and for the fans, a better show, more unpredictable, and some upsets coming from the back."

The KVSH Racing driver has been on both sides of the equation he mentioned. Just as Bourdais has won numerous races by dominating from start to finish, his win in the No. 11 Hydroxycut Chevy last weekend was made possible by a smart – and somewhat risky – strategy call made during an early yellow. With the way the rest of the yellows occurred, Bourdais was able to move to the front while drivers that had been up front fell prey to KVSH's roll of the dice.

Had VSC been in place, using that strategy would have buried Bourdais at the back of the field.

"What [VSC] changes is the way the race unfolds," he added. "If the leaders don't get screwed, they don't get upset; the leaders remain the leaders. And I don't know what the series' stance is on that."

As one of the leaders of the driver's association, and one of the series' most outspoken safety advocates, Bourdais would want to gather more feedback before presenting VSC as a change worth considering.

"Are we talking about safety, or keeping the races more exciting?" he asked. "Since we haven't spoken with [race director] Brian [Barnhart] or the stewards, it's hard to know exactly where they're at."