By alley - Jul 31, 2017, 2:16 PM ET

Power, Rahal call for rules rethink

While the tenacious defense of position at the final restart of the Honda Indy 200 by the lapped Esteban Gutierrez drew criticism after the Honda Indy 200, Will Power and Graham Rahal said at the post-race press conference it was symptomatic of an increasing problem for IndyCar.

"I think we need to have a talk behind closed doors with the drivers," said Rahal. "I would say Gutierrez was damn close to taking out the leader. I'm sure you saw it. That's just ridiculous, honestly.

"We'll talk about it behind closed doors. I think everybody needs a little bit of a shake-up here with just the respect between drivers, but we'll go from there. I mean, I always get told I'm a whiner when I talk about those sorts of things. I'll let Will talk about it..."

Power, who arguably suffered the most by the Dale Coyne Racing driver's refusal to move aside to let the Australian and Rahal try to challenge leader Josef Newgarden, didn't put all the blame on the Mexican driver.

"It's actually not Gutierrez's fault," said Power. "The rules for IndyCar are kind of ridiculous, that the team would tell him to stay and push and he's not even in the lead. I understand if he was ahead of Newgarden, because then, if it goes yellow, he gets his lap back.

"I mean, IndyCar on one hand wants really good racing, but then you put a bunch of backmarkers, people a lap down in the mix. It ruined probably a very good battle at the end because Josef was on black tires and we were on reds."

Rahal added: "After we cleared him [Gutierrez], all we were trying to do was haul ass to catch up again. Same with [Carlos] Munoz mid-race. How much time did I lose, 10 seconds, if not more? He was on overtake every single straightaway. It's like, come on!"

"You would have to have a no-reply push-to-pass system. That would create a lot more passing at tracks like this, because then you don't have people replying," said the Team Penske driver. "The [2018] aero kit will help, but if you really want real hard-core racing – because DRS in Formula 1 is too much, like the passes aren't real – but I think the push-to-pass, it's just getting here.

Added Rahal: "Like today, he [Power] could be on push-to-pass at times and I'd be in a really good tow behind him, and it would be similar. It's not so much that it's like DRS, but the problem we have right now is, when you get close behind somebody, you are hanging on to your ass big time. It is a whole different ball game.

"I think next year, when the car develops the downforce from underneath, it's going to be way better racing. I remember like, what was the year before we went to this [aero] kit? 2014, you could really dice it up. Now, every time I went into [Turn] 1 behind him at the end, I was just praying that it would somewhat stick through the corner."

Both drivers also renewed their plea for IndyCar to alter the pit rules for caution periods, even though Mid-Ohio's full-course yellow didn't prove as decisive as it did last time out in Toronto.

"Yeah, it was good for a breather, that's about it, because everyone had pitted," Power said of the late caution. "I don't know if anyone were called out. In that instance, if anyone had gone a lap longer, they literally get a drive-through penalty, and that's what's wrong with closing the laps on the yellow. If you stayed out one lap longer, you'd be at the back. To me, that's so wrong if you've done a good job of saving fuel. Exactly what happened in Toronto: All these guys should have been fighting for the win. Instead, they're put to the back for doing a really good job.

"I think the field is competitive enough now to make it fair, because it's a total lottery for who's in the pits. Total lottery."

Rahal agreed. "As Will said, this championship is too competitive for a race to be decided like Toronto, in my opinion. That's why I was pretty hot after the race, you know? The championship is too close for that to play a role. Today, luckily, it was okay because we could have gone another lap to turn and decided not to, thank God."