I was just thinking this as I was watching the replay of the Indycar race in Alabama the other day, I really didn't appreciate how great it is to just be able to wave yellows at certain sectors rather than neutralizing the entire track behind a safety car every time. There were so many yellows in the Indycar race this weekend, I don't watch enough to know if that's normal or not, but it was really annoying. Not to mention the addition of the virtual safety car.
Yeah, Indycar is terrible with the full course cautions. I think it's a holdover from when they were a mostly oval series. On an oval it makes sense to throw the full course, close the pits and let everyone settle down a bit. Especially when you have people who have to clean up the track and you can't have cars whizzing by at almost full speed. It doesn't make sense on the road/street ciruits though. Especially when they have this mentality that's in only fair everyone who wants to gets to pit under cuation. When the track is clear, pull the caution flag and let's get going. The Virtual Safety Car that F1 does was a brilliant idea. That way you don't have to wait for the pace car to get all the way back to the pits to start the race again. When the track is clear, go.
Again, I love Indycar, I grew up on it and have been to quite a few races, but they are stuck in this rut of nostalgia for the past for a lot of the things they do. I also am convinced 95% of the reason for the long yellows is the TV, allowing them to go to full commercial even more often.
I stick with my initial point though, no matter how they want to run their races rules wise, don't go head to head with F1. Indy should be racing the weekends F1 is off. And if they do run they same weekend, for craps sake, don't have your race on the same time as F1.
And as someone said above, the 80s and early 90s were the glory days of Indycar, they genuinely did compete with F1 at that point. A lot of different Chassis, engines and drivers with some crazy personalities from all over the world. The split was definitely a momentum killer. Not just for Indycar, but for the Indy 500 as well. That race has never been the same since the split.