Beaux Barfield promised the 2014 Verizon IndyCar season would be dictated more by the race drivers than Race Control and that was certainly evident in Sunday’s 40th annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

No penalties were handed down for the contact between Will Power and Simon Pagenaud or Justin Wilson and Scott Dixon, which left some competitors and fans scratching their collective heads.

“We said before the season began that we were going to change the way we officiate and take more of a hands-off approach,” said Barfield (LEFT). “And I think that’s what you saw last Sunday.”

Of course the most popular topic on the Long Beach “hit list” was Power putting his former teammate and vacation pal Pagenaud into the tire barriers.

“Myself and the other two stewards (Johnny Unser and Brian Barnhart) looked at the replays and acknowledged that we would have likely called that a penalty last year but it’s something we will no longer call,” said Barfield. “It was two guys racing hard for position but we didn’t see it as malicious.”

As for Dixon appearing to shove Wilson into the wall, Barfield explained: “You could say the line that Dixon took into the corner was either slightly defensive or that he left Justin some room on the left. But you can see on the replay that Justin turned back into Scott and he initiated the contact.

“You can also see that Scott was looking hard right and may not have known he (Wilson) was there. But Justin probably wasn’t going to make the corner and it was too late for him to do a crossover move because he was too far alongside Dixon.”

Asked if it seemed ironic he was defending the 2013 champion who repeatedly called for him to be fired, Barfield replied: “No, because I don’t hold grudges, I don’t play favorites and that’s the way it should be.”

When Graham Rahal spun out Wilson at the hairpin, he got a drive-through penalty but, later, when rookie Mikhail Aleshin turned Rahal around at the same place, he got nothing.

“Graham got penalized because he spun Justin before we even went back to green and he was beating on his bumper all the way from Turn 9,” explained Barfield. “That was an easy call to make.

“But when Graham got turned he had moved off-line going into the hairpin – maybe trying to dictate Aleshin’s exit, I don’t know – but when the kid moved back on line he hit Rahal and turned him. If Graham keeps his normal line, it’s the Chrome Horn and the rookie gets a penalty.”

Race Control’s new procedure is that the three stewards decide on whether to call a penalty and it takes a majority vote.

“The rule of avoidable contact has changed – it’s now just contact,” said Barfield. “That’s how we are officiating and we didn’t think Will, Scott and Mikhail were negligent or reckless as the newly-worded rules state.

“But the bottom line is that we don’t want races to be decided by Race Control. It’s up to the drivers to sort things out.”

And likely that means dollar signs for Dallara – better make a whole bunch of new front wings for Alabama.