Iowa Preview
If you’re an IndyCar fan that has grown tired of street and road courses, the Hy-Vee IndyCar weekend at Iowa Speedway is just what you’ve been waiting for. For old-school race fans like me, this weekend is something of a throwback. For only the third time this season, the NTT IndyCar Series will visit an oval this weekend, when they take on Iowa Speedway, near Newton, Iowa. As an added bonus, this is a short oval – coming in at 7/8 of a mile.
While we continue to complain about the dearth of ovals on the IndyCar schedule, at least each of the four oval tracks are completely different from each other. Texas Motor Speedway is a 1.5-mile oval that is practically a cookie-cutter replica of Charlotte Motor Speedway and Atlanta Motor Speedway; with only slight differences in the turns. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is a 2.5-mile rectangular oval (although I’m assuming most readers here already know that). Iowa is a short 7/8-mile D-shaped oval and World Wide Technology Raceway is a 1.25-mile egg-shaped oval. That’s about as diverse as you can get with having only four ovals on the schedule.
Of course, this weekend is also a double-header. There was a time when there were three double-header weekends on the schedule. Then it dropped down to one per season for several years – Belle Isle. Then when COVID played havoc with the schedule in 2020 – double-headers became necessary to get to fourteen races for the season.
I was never a fan of the double-header concept. I’ve only attended one in-person – the double-header at Road America in 2020 – and I didn’t care for it. The weekend seemed too hectic, and two races in two days seemed too much – from a fan’s perspective anyway.
For whatever reason, however – I like the double-header at Iowa. However, if I was a crew-member, I would hate it. Crashes on ovals tend to be more damaging to cars than road courses. If a driver stuffs a car into the fence during Saturday’s race, the team is pretty much assured very little sleep as the rebuild the car throughout the night for Sunday’s race. If that scenario does happen, I believe the team would get a brief opportunity on Sunday morning, to make sure it will at least hold together. Chances are good that a rebuilt car will not be near as good as it was before the crash. If I was a driver, I would be tempted to not be as aggressive on Saturday, as I would be on Sunday. That mindset is probably why I’m not a race car driver.
My only wish is that one or both of this weekend’s races could be run at night. The total absence of night races on the schedule concerns me. I think Texas, Iowa and Gateway should all be run under the lights.
Lately, Iowa Speedway has been the domain of Team Penske; or more specifically – Josef Newgarden. Longtime reader Chad Smith (@Chad200 on Twitter) posted some interesting stats the other day. Josef Newgarden’s last nine Iowa finishes were second, second, first, sixth, fourth, first, fifth, first, first and twenty-fourth. That twenty-fourth place finish was the second race of last summer’s double-header; when he crashed while leading due to a suspension piece breaking.
He went on to post another interesting tidbit. In those same nine races, Helio Castroneves, Will Power, Simon Pagenaud, Pato O’Ward and Takuma Sato all combined to lead 721 laps at Iowa. In that same time period, Josef Newgarden led 1,506 laps. That is the definition of total domination. To say he has figured out Iowa Speedway is an understatement.
This is the second straight year that this race has been run under Penske Entertainment with Hy-Vee as the title sponsor. The formula of a double-header with A-List musical acts before and after each race proved wildly successful last year. They are following the same formula this year, but the ticket prices have been raised dramatically. Someone has to pay for those musical acts. I heard earlier this week that tickets have not sold as well as last year. I’ll be curious to see if the stands look as full as last year, when Hy-Vee received universal praise for their role in bringing Iowa back to the IndyCar schedule. If the stands have noticeably fewer fans than last year – we might see a tweaking of the formula for next season. Not all race fans are concert-goers. They aren’t keen on the premise of paying to attend a concert and having a race thrown in between acts.
The weekend’s only practice will run this afternoon at 4:30 pm EDT on peacock. The unique qualifying for both races will take place Saturday morning at 9:30 am EDT on Peacock. I say unique, because their Lap One speed will determine the grid for Saturday’s race. Lap Two will determine their spot in Sunday’s race.
Coverage for Race One on Saturday will begin at 3:00 pm EDT on Big NBC, with the green flag flying just six minutes later – so don’t be expecting a pre-race show while you get your snacks in order. There is a warmup period on Sunday morning at 11:05 am EDT and will be shown on Peacock, for those cars that may need it. Coverage for Sunday’s Race Two begins an earlier than Saturday – at 2:00 pm, but there should be a thirty-minute pre-race show on Sunday. It will also be shown on Big NBC.
The races are Iowa are always entertaining, without being too scary to watch. I expect the same for this weekend. The biggest question is whether or not anyone can stop the momentum that Alex Palou has as he dominates this championship. Last weekend he still finished second, after starting sixteenth – with a broken front wing for the second half of the race. He didn’t win, but extended his points lead over Scott Dixon to 117 points. Josef Newgarden trails Dixon by another nine points.
Who will win? Given the stats I threw out earlier, I’d be foolish to predict anyone other than Josef Newgarden. Until his suspension broke in Race Two last year, he was headed to a sweep at Iowa. I think he pulls it off this year. Josef Newgarden will win both races at Iowa this weekend and will tighten up the championship race enough to at least make things interesting. We’ll see.
George Phillips
Oilpressure 
July 21, 2023 at 9:29 am
If not Newgarden, then O’Ward seems poised to finally put McLaren in victory lane this year. Could also be a good chance for other Penske or McLaren drivers as well, as Iowa should be a bit friendlier to Chevrolet than the street races have been.
I like having two races at Iowa as well, and seriously considered going this year.
July 21, 2023 at 10:14 am
I definitely think one of the Chevy’s can win this one. My money is on Newgarden/Scotty Mac/O’Ward.
Gateway absolutely needs to be run at night. August in St Louis is brutal and I would think more fans would show up if it was under the lights. Still planning to make the trip to that race.
July 21, 2023 at 12:32 pm
Based upon his and the team’s performance at Indy, I think that Santino & A J Foyt Racing will once again be near or possibly at the top this weekend at Iowa.
July 21, 2023 at 7:08 pm
So Hinch definitely reads oilpressure. 53 seconds into the practice session on Peacock today…..he says “delta!” haha!!!! I think he’s messing with you George!
July 22, 2023 at 1:21 am
It’s looking like two great races coming up. Keep it off the walls guys. I’m back to no volume on the screen and full volume off the indycar Live Race Control. Diffey ( good guy ) and Bell shouting away does my head in !
July 22, 2023 at 12:10 pm
I usually agree with most of your opinions and comments, however we really enjoyed the RA weekend that featured two Indy Car races. It
ranked right up there with a Friday before the Daytona 500 when the Duel 125s, an IROC race, and another race (Goody’s?) were contested on Friday because the Duel 125s were rained out on Thursday! If I recall we witnessed 600 miles of racing on that day in the late 1970s or early ’80s! It was great!