SUNDAY, JULY 24 9:00 am Gates Open 12:10 pm – 1:00 pm Gwen Stefani Concert 2:00 pm – 4:30 pm NTT INDYCAR SERIES Race Hy-Vee Salute to Farmers 300 presented by Google (300 laps) NBC, Peacock 5:15 pm – 6:45 pm Blake Shelton Concert
The weather will be much more pleasant today, with highs in the low to mid 80s.
Staring Lineup:
*Will confirm later, but Colton Herta is expected to receive a nibne place grid penalty for an engine change.
Yesterday’s crowd was announced as a sellout-38,000. As of last night, Indycar said that there were 800 seats available for today’s race. Wheteher they sell out or not, this weekend has been a smash success.
Pato O’Ward said yesterday that he used up his tires trying to get to Josef Newegarden. The team will look for a solution for today’s race.
“We were just extremely extremely loose. We need to we need to see what we can do better for tomorrow and not have that because it took a lot of pitstops to get it into a window where we can actually attack rather than just being a little bit of a passenger but yeah, really happy with our day,” O’Ward said.
Two of O’Ward’s Indycar wins came in the second race of a double header.
Results from Race 1
Notes
Rinus VeeKay had a sneaky fourth place finish Saturday. He started eighth and just quietly drove to fourth. VeeKay has two fourth place finishes in his last three races.
His teammate. Conor Daly, started third, but ended the day 19th. I think both Carpenter cars will have good days today.
Newgarden could complete the fourth double header sweep in Indycar history. The last time it happened was Detroit 2017 when Graham Rahal won both Detroit races.
We could see the same drivers on the podium today, but in a different order.
Another Iowa race, another Josef Newgarden victory. Newgarden dominates this track like Scott Dixon used to rule Mid Ohio.
Chevy has a tremendous advanatge over Honda this year. Several Honda cars challenged Newgarden, but did not have enough to make a serious run. Chevys finished 1,,2,3,4 today.
Colton Herta’s oval misfortunes continued. After his first early pit stop it was fun watching him carve his way through the field. Herta looked like he would be a contender.
What a drive for Jimmie Johnson. He spun on lap 14, recovered to lead 19 laps, and spent much of the race in the top 10 before finishing 11th.
The standings have tightened up. Mafrcus Ericsson’s lead has shrunk to 15 pointsover Newgarden and 22 over Will Power.
Pato O’Ward earned his second runner up spot on an oval. it was a much needed result for O’Ward, who had an average finish of 20th in his past three races.
Overall, it was a good race with many battles for position.
Newgarden, Power, and O’Ward all noted how quickly the tires went away today. They expect the same situation tomorrow.
Some Numbers
Newgarden has won four races in 2022. This is the first year a driver has four wins since 2020. Today’s win was also his fourth at Iowa. His first win here came when he drove for Ed Carpenter Racing.
Indycar announced there were 722 passes on track today, 372 for position.
Only five cars finished on the lead lap.
Today’s race marked the sixth time this year that the driver starting second has won. The pole winner has not won since the first race of the year in St. Pete.
I will have a follow up story with quotes and final results up later. Thanks for following along. Another race tomorrow.
Another Iowa race, another Josef Newgarden victory. Newgarden dominates this track like Scott Dixon used to rule Mid Ohio.
Chevy has a tremendous advanatge over Honda this year. Several Honda cars challenged Newgarden, but did not have enough to make a serious run. Chevys finished 1,,2,3,4 today.
Colton Herta’s oval misfortunes continued. After his first early pit stop it was fun watching him carve his way through the field. Herta looked like he would be a contender.
What a drive for Jimmie Johnson. He spun on lap 14, recovered to lead 19 laps, and spent much of the race in the top 10 before finishing 11th.
The standings have tightened up. Mafrcus Ericsson’s lead has shrunk to 15 pointsover Newgarden and 22 over Will Power.
Pato O’Ward earned his second runner up spot on an oval. it was a much needed result for O’Ward, who had an average finish of 20th in his past three races.
Overall, it was a good race with many battles for position.
Newgarden, Power, and O’Ward all noted how quickly the tires went away today. They expect the same situation tomorrow.
Some Numbers
Newgarden has won four races in 2022. This is the first year a driver has four wins since 2020. Today’s win was also his fourth at Iowa. His first win here came when he drove for Ed Carpenter Racing.
Indycar announced there were 722 passes on track today, 372 for position.
Only five cars finished on the lead lap.
Today’s race marked the sixth time this year that the driver starting second has won. The pole winner has not won since the first race of the year in St. Pete.
I will have a follow up story with quotes and final results up later. Thanks for following along. Another race tomorrow.
And then there was one. Will Power moved moved within one career pole of Mario Andretti by grabbing poles for both races at Iowa Speedway. Josef Newgarden, Power’s team Penske teammmate, will start second in both races. Chevy powered cars will start each race in five of the first six positions. Power now has won five poles at Iowa.
The last pole sweep by a driver was by Simon Pagenaud in Detroit in 2016.
Conor Daly had held both provisional poles through 10 qualifiers until Newgarden firmly beat his times. Power then took to then track and turned the only laps int the 178 mph range to grab his 65th and 66th career poles. Power now has three poles for the season.
Colton Herta picked up nearly three miles an hour on his second lap to slot third for race 2. However, his team will change his engine after today’s race and he will be moved to 12th for Sunday’s race.
Rinus VeeKay had the most consistent run. His first lap was 176.626 mph and his second lap was 176.625 mph.
Will Power
Power talks about his double pole.
“Yeah, it was It was messy. It was skipping up the track and I was surprised those the quickest like but always wheeling it as much as I could. I thought it was leaving nothing on the table. So again, it was not there was a 17 (second lap) to encounter .”
Starting position is key.
” lt felt like you had to start in the top 10 To have a good race because it was seemed a little difficult to pass .. cars can follow along so you can make sense. Positions are in basic decision up with our strategy, but leading is obviously easier. You can queue up people when they need to get a bit of a lead up early they’ll come down to laps you know that was so yeah, good spot to be in.”
On catching points leader Marcus Ericsson:
“I’m hoping that this is a good weekend for us to catch Marcus. Because he’s very tough. He’s, he’s, you know, he’s not the best qualified but he’s probably the best racer in series in my opinion. I might have just over the years watching him race. He’s one of the toughest guys like he’s very, very good at starting back there and making his way all the way to the front. So yeah, he’s going to try and get some points on it.”
8:00 am Gates Open 8:30 am – 9:00 am Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires Qualifying 9:30 am – 10:45 am NTT INDYCAR SERIES Qualifying for Races 1 and 2 Peacock 11:15 am – 12:20 pm Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires Race (100 laps) Peacock 1:00 pm – 1:50 pm Tim McGraw Concert 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm NTT INDYCAR SERIES HyVeeDeals.com 250 presented by DoorDash (250 laps) Green flag at 3:30 NBC, Peacock 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm Florida Georgia Line Concert
If qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 is the most pressure in qualifying in Indycar, Iowa qualifying has to be the second most pressure. Drivers are qualifying for both races. The first lap is for today’s race, the second lap is the time for tomorrow’s race. Cars must race today as they qualify.
The session to set the lineup will be in cooler conditions that Friday’s practice, while the race will be run in similar conditions to Friday.
Just 0.7225 seconds separated the fastest car from the slowest in practice. One smallbobble can mean a big penalty in the starting lineup.
The race could be Team Penske versus Conor Daly and Pato O’Ward. Daly exuded confidence all day Friday. O’Ward is due for a reversal of his recent misfortunes. WE could be in for a really good race today.
Notes
The qualifying order may help the early runners as the temperatures rise during the session. Daly goes out in the middle of the round, which might help him.
If you are at the track, hydrate and take shade breaks. HyVee sells a very nice Indycar cooling towel.
One thing that struck me yesterday was the amount of advertising on the track’s outside wall, I have never seen so much at an Indycar track. Parts of the walls look like an NHL rink’s boards.
Will Power set the fastest lap in the only practice sessioin the Iowa double header. Conor Daly laid down a lop of 173.239 mph in the first 10 minutes of practice.Power edged Daly turning a 173.285 lap with less than 40 minutes to go in the 90 minute practice.
Qualifying for the two races begins at 9:30 Central time tomorrow. The HyVee Deals.com250 presented by DoorDash begins at 3 pm Central time tomorrow.
There were two stoppages, one for a track inspection and one for a fox running across the track. The fox jumped over the safer barrier.
“It’s my favorite oval,” Power said. “I think we’re in the mix.”
On running the high line, Power said, ” You gotta be wherever the car in front of you is not. It’s where can I get clean air?”
Notes
I went intoi one of the HyVee mobile stores this afternoon. It bis a camp store on steroids. If they don’t stock the product there, it can be ordered and elivered to you at the track.
HyVee has already hit a home run with this event. I am excited to see whatb the next two days bring. Indycar needs two or three more sponsors who will activate like they have
Marcus Ericsson knows what he needs to do to secure his first NTT Indycar Series championship. His mplan is to maximize his position each weekend and not be so aggressive that he loses psotions.
“.I don’t have to be about the gamble. Like we don’t have to try to manage to do everything to win the race, we can do whatever and beaggressive in races, we don’t have any gambling. That’s sort of my my mindset, we need to go out there maximize that we don’t have to, we don’t have to throw away a P5 to have to win.”
Ericsson has scored more points than any other dribver in the series since Nashville last year. He doesn’t plan t change the way the team does things because they are fighting for the title.
” …a fine line because if you start to think too much about it and be clever about it, you’re gonna put yourself in a hole so like I said, we’ve had a good run for the last year and a half. I don’t want to change that the way we do things. I think it’s more like, like I said to my guys, we don’t have to, like, we don’t have to gamble for a bigger goal, right? Like if we were 80 points on the lead, and then you need to win races, you would say okay, like we need to win a race or to finish a championship. But we’re not the ones that has to take a big as to get there physically. So we need to have solid weekend and all the weekends that are leftbe running solidly up front and if we do that, we’re gonna be fine.”
It has been a while since Ericsson has contended for a championship. He is confident in his team and his strategists to help him.
“I haven’t been writing for a championship for quite a while, you know, I’ve got a bit of it last year, but we’re showing the hunter at the end of the season. But before then, you know, it was in my junior career. So it’s a bit a bit new for me, but I want to do things the same way I’ve done the last year I’m gonna keep doing and I I have extremely talented and good pit wall with you know, Brad and Michael Gary. They are so clever and like, you know, so good on strategy and all that. So I promised them and I do it together. And we’re going to try and maximize every weekend.”
On racing at Iowa Speedway:
“I’ve never raced in such a short track I was in my life. And so the track is, well, it’s pretty extreme unique. The first time so pretty shocked driving cars out there and the test in 2019. Like we actually raised on this place ever since I’ve just really enjoyed it. I’ve been racing it awesome. It’s one of the best tracks of the year that we can race on. So I’m really looking forward to it. I really enjoyed being a doubleheader. I think that’s gonna be super interesting. And also display there’s always so many things happening. So he’s like, you know, sSimon last time, he won last. I think that’s everything, you could have a good race car and you know, you hit it right with strategy, you can win from anywhere in this field. So it’s gonna be a really interesting race.”
Ericswson believes he still needs to win at least oine more race to win nthe championship. The series goes to Nashville, where whe won last season, in a couple of weeks. That race may be his best chance to win.
Inside Iowa Speedway. The track and grandstands look brand new. The turn 1-2 viewing hil is now occupied by stands.
One change I don’t like is at the start/finish line inthe cover photo. The ear of corn which straddled the line and was an iconic mark of Iowa Speedway, is gone in favor of the HyVee logo.
I get it. HyVee has poured a lot into Indycar in general and this event specifically, but with their name everywhere around the track, the corn could have stayed.
I have never seen the track and buildings look better than they do right now. I’m excited to see the place full, which I haven’t seen since my first year here in 2012.
I still need to venture to the other sid eof the grandstands to check out the concessions and merch tents. We are still a ways from Indy Lights practice, and two hours out from whent he gates open for spectators.
I’ll be back before practice with some ore goings on here.
FRIDAY, JULY 22 2:00 pm Gates Open 2:15 pm – 3:05 pm Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires Practice 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm NTT INDYCAR SERIES Practice Peacock 5:30 pm Track crossing opens for fans to access the infield paddock area 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm NTT INDYCAR SERIES and Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires driver autograph session (paddock area of the infield)
Good morning from Iowa. It is so nice to be back at Iowa Speedway. It is a fun track to watch a race. This weekend’s double header event is an experiment for Indycar. There are four concerts tomorrow and Sunday-Tim McGraw and Florida Georgia Line tomorrow; Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton on Sunday-and a food truck festival. All of the extras are an attempt to draw a good crowd for an oval race. The advance sales show that it might work. Officials are expecting moree than 30,000 fans each day. The attendance is promising, but can it be sustained over several years?
My only issue with the weekend is that the Saturday race isn’t a night race. The racing at Iowa Speedway is much better at night. I have seen both day and night races here, and The daytime races were not as good as the bighttime ones.
The weather will be a big factor, especially for Saturday’s HyVeeDeals.com 250 presented by DoorDash, Temepreatures Saturday are expected to be in the mid to uper 90s with a heat index reach at least 100 degrees. Cooling inside the cockpit will be a concern.
Conr Daly said about this weekend’s heat:
“I think this weekend is without a doubt going to be the hardest we’ve been pushed in this era of INDYCAR racing for sure, with the aeroscreen, double-header at Iowa in the day. The forecast doesn’t necessarily look super inviting or like wonderful. So yeah, we’ve never run the cool shirt yet at an oval, but I think we’re going to try to run the cool shirt this weekend.”
The cooling shirt adds about six pounds to the car. If everyone wears it, there is no penalty.
Sunday’s forecast looks better, with a high in the mid 80s.
Will tire degradation be an issue in the heat? Generally a stint can go close to 80 laps here, but will we see earlier stops for tires? Will the race turn into a fuelk saving race? Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.
Spotter’s Guide for Saturday
Points Battle
Marcus Ericsson increased his lead to 35 points over Will Power and 44 points over Josef Newgarden. He has to try to at least maintain that distance after Sunday at a track where Team Penske has dominated. Newgarden has won three times here and has led the most laps. I think Ericsson will still be leading at the end of the day Sunday, but he will probaly need a couple of top 5s and maybe a podium to extend his advantage.
Rookies
David Malukas has been the highest finishing rookie on each of the two previous ovals. I expect him to be the highest finisher in class again.
Malukas is till my pick for Rookie of the Year. He currently trails Christian Lundgaard by 20 points in the standings and should cut that margin over the next couple of days.
Final Thaoughts
Scott Dixon, who turns 42 today, will star his 300th Indycar race Sunday. His 52 wins means he has won one race out of every six he has run.
This might be the weekend Alex Palou wins a race. It has been a whilke since a defending champion did not win a race the following year, and I believe this is the deepest into a season a champion has gone without winning since 2014. That driver? Scott Dixon.
If you are coming to the track, please hydrate and find shade under the grandstand whenever possible.
Back with more after I get a chance to explore the new, improved Iowa Speedway. I had just a brief glance at it yesterday, and everything looks great,.
The Pit Window by Mike Silver 