An IndyCar race official has plenty to consider and little time to make critical decisions. The fallout from those decisions lasts a lot longer.
That's certainly the case for Brian Barnhart.
IndyCar's director of competition and operations admitted he messed up when he restarted Sunday's race at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway on a wet track. It's just one of a number of tough calls he's made that have drawn criticism.
''He makes such bad calls all the time,'' an incensed Will Power said after he crashed on the slippery surface. ''This has got to be it. They cannot have this guy running the show.''
''This is the worst officiating I've ever seen,'' said Michael Andretti, owner of Andretti Autosports. ''Normally, Brian does a great job, but this time he really missed it.''
And that isn't all.
Barnhart's decision to revert to the order at Lap 215 when the yellow flag came out in the scheduled 225-lap race sparked a postrace controversy. Ryan Hunter-Reay, who drives for Andretti, was declared the winner. But Oriol Servia and Scott Dixon said they both passed him in the few seconds between the restart and the crash that began when Danica Patrick slid sideways and Power hit her.
So the actual result may not be known until next week when the teams of Servia and Power will argue their protests at a hearing.
Power, trying to catch Dario Franchitti for the series points lead, was knocked out in the crash but was given fifth place. Before learning that, he flashed two middle fingers at race officials, a scene caught by a television camera. Power apologized and, so far, hasn't been penalized.
Barnhart admitted he was wrong in restarting the race, but defended his decision to revert to the order after Lap 215 before his mistake.
It wasn't his first brush with controversy.
At the Indianapolis 500 in 2002, Barnhart declared Helio Castroneves the winner under caution despite Paul Tracy's claim that he had passed Castroneves moments before the yellow flag came out. Five hours later, Indy Racing League officials backed up Barnhart's decision.
But the case kept dragging out when Tracy's team owner, Barry Green, appealed. More than a month after the race, IRL president Tony George said Barnhart's split-second decision could not be appealed, and, besides, it was the right one.
Fast forward to Edmonton, July 2010.
Castroneves crossed the finish line first, but was black-flagged for blocking Power and knocked down to 10th in the final results. Dixon was named the winner. A livid Castroneves stormed out of his car and grabbed an IndyCar security chief before being restrained. He later apologized for his actions but maintained he didn't block Power.
Barnhart was in the spotlight again Sunday with so much to consider as the cars sped around the one-mile oval.
He wanted a good race for fans and television viewers, not one that ended under a caution flag - especially with the New Hampshire track trying to rebuild interest as it returned to IndyCar racing for the first time since 1998.'We could have tooled around behind the pace car and just thrown the checkered and the yellow at the same time at 225 (miles),'' Barnhart said, ''and we would have made a lot of fans angry in the race grandstands.''
With so few miles left after the yellow, he had to hurry his decision before the race reached its scheduled end.
And the rain was just a light mist, not a downpour that would have made the decision not to restart easy.
''It did start raining on the last lap coming to green,'' Dixon said. ''It is a tough call. I wouldn't want to be the one trying to decide.''
The IndyCar blogosphere has been filled with criticism of Barnhart's decision to restart. Questions have been raised there about whether he should be replaced.
But the job is a magnet for criticism from a group of drivers not at all reluctant to express their opinions.
Former driver Al Unser Jr., a member of Race Control, agreed that Barnhart faced a tough decision.
''I went outside (before the restart) and I saw the water, but it wasn't any more than what we had been running prior,'' Unser said. ''Obviously, we had made the wrong decision.''
It's a decision Barnhart can't take back.
What could be changed is the order of finish.
''If there would not have been the crash, they would not have reversed the order,'' Servia said, ''because I was ahead.''
But there was a crash, a crash that followed by mere seconds Barnhart's mistake. The man burdened with making the difficult decisions must wait - again - until next week's hearing to see if he made the right one in declaring Hunter-Reay the winner.
''More often than not, we certainly make the right calls,'' Barnhart said. ''When you've made the wrong one and it exposes (drivers) to a safety risk factor, no one feels worse about it than I do.''
