Unauthorized DE pass.. Black Flag?

[986tate]

He’s so far off line, I think it was the sensible, safe thing to do

[husker boxster]

I totally agree with Jay. From a safety standpoint, that was the proper move. It's one thing if they were holding you up and you were frustrated with them not letting you by and you took advantage of a perceived opening without a point by. But someone suddenly slowing and going offline is totally different and justifiable to pass.

I had an interesting and sort of similar situation at Indy in 2020. I was in an open passing run group but we were forbidden to pass in T1 & T7. I was heading down the back straight towards T7. At the start of the straight, someone had given me a point by. I was completing that pass when the next car gave me a point by. By this time I didn't think I could get the pass safely made before we got to the corner, so I didn't take the pass. However, the car assumed I was going to pass so they went offline in T7 and slowed way down. Nothing I could do, esp with cars behind me, but to make the pass in the middle of the turn. I assumed we would both be black flagged and talked to. I kept a sharp eye on the black flag corner worker but after 2 laps of no flag I figured I wasn't going to be called in. I certainly deserved to be flagged and I was going to tell them the car in front offered the pass but I didn't intend to take it. I don't think that car was flagged either.

[MaxD]

You absolutely did the right thing. You stayed on your line, did a minor adjustment to your line mid corner to keep him well away and that was the right call.

We generally only black flag drivers for egregious violations of passing rules (including not giving point by's), consistent bad behavior or a four wheel off.