Blundell: IndyCars should be required to finish with some fuel in tank

Double Indianapolis 500 winner Arie Luyendyk and former Marlboro 500 winner Mark Blundell have called on the IZOD IndyCar Series to act to curb teams employing fuel-saving strategies on ovals in the aftermath of Mike Conway's accident.

Blundell – now Conway's business manager – believes that the series should consider introducing regulations to prevent a similar accident in the future, adding that the 26-year-old Conway – who will require a further operation following the five-hour one he had on Monday – could not have avoided hitting Hunter-Reay.

"What happened on Sunday could have been avoided," Blundell told AUTOSPORT. "There could have been a fatality, not just on track, but also in the crowd.

"They need to do something about it so that it doesn't happen again. If you haven't driven an Indy car at those speeds, you could never understand, but there is nothing a driver can do in those situations. If a driver has run out of fuel and is coasting on the racing line, you simply have no time to react at all."

Blundell wants to see rules introduced to ensure that drivers have to finish the race on a minimum amount of fuel – to avoid running out altogether – or be forced to run on the low line of the track if they are in fuel-saving mode, so that faster runners know to avoid them. Racer.com