Josef Newgarden is the Indycar Ovalmeister with his fifth straight oval win. Newgarden has won seven of the last nine Indycar oval races, and he was one suspension failure away from winninf eightn of nine. The finalovalof 2023 comes at gateway in about a month. He is defintiely the favorite going into that race as well.

A;ex Palou managed to put some salve on the bleeding ofm his point lead. His thrid place finish today cuts his lead to 80 points as the series heads to tracks more to his liking at Nashville and the IMS road course. Palou tied his worst finish of the year yesterday finishing eighth.

Today’s race was a much better show than we saw yesterday. There were battles all through the field, with teamates going after each other, and several different challengers for the lead. The teams had he opportubnity overnight to put their cars in race trim, which helped the racing a lot. Iowa should move qualifying to Friday to make Saturday’s race better. And to make both races better, run them at night.

Race Control

I am most confused by calls from race control today. Sting Ray Robb exited the pits with an unsecured tire, which rolled onto the track at pit exit. It seemed that there was no immediate yellow. Several cars, including Newgarden, dodged the errant tire.

The stewards also looked inconsistent on wall contact. Agustin canapinombrushed the wall and brought out the first yellow of the day. later, takuma sato had wall contact, and no caution was thrown. With 12 laps to go, Ryan hunter-reay’s wall contact brough out a yellow, which led to more confusion,.

Race control decided not to open the pits except to let the lapped cars drive through. I admire their effort to finish under green, but this is not how they handled a similar late caution period at Indianapolis. The decision cost some cars the opportunity to get fresh tires for the final few laps. We have seen that move pay dividends at Iowa in the past.

In 2018 at Iowa, a crash late in the race left a green flag finish in doubt. rave vontrol told the teams that they would go back to green. several cars pitted for new rubber. The race finished under yellow, costing those that pitted several positions.

I felt a red was called for given race control’s previous actions at other places.

I have little argument with whatever calls they make as long they are consistent. I may not always agree with the call, but if the stewards are consistent, I’m fine with what they do.

Great Drives

Felix Rosenqvist finished fourth after starting 16th, but he was the last serious challenger to Josef Newgarden just before the last caution. His finish, paired with Pato O’Ward’s third place on Saturday, gave Arrow McLaren two top five finishes for the weekend.

Alex Palou had his best Iowa finish in third. Palou started 12th, and languished n the bottom half of the top 10 or just outside of it most of the day. Palou went a lap down a couple of times, but still managed to end up on the podium. Tesults like today are the kind that win titles.

The Points Battle

A weekend that could have seen Palou’s mhuge lead in the championship demolished turned out to be not so bad. He entered the weekend 117 points ahead of second place. Palou heads to the next race with an 80 point lead. He lost just one third of his lead.

The remaining schedule favors Palou. With just one oval left in 2023, Palou has the edge in tracks where he is stronger than Newgarden. I think Palou will still win the title.

Thanks for following along this weekend. I will be ay IMS this coming Friday and saturday for the IMSA test. I am excited for the sports var series tocome to the Speedway.