Oilpressure

After one race of the hybrid-era on a natural terrain road course in the books, the NTT IndyCar Series makes the shift into the oval portion of the schedule. With eight races remaining in the 2024 IndyCar season only two non-ovals remain – the street circuit for the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto next weekend, and the Bitnile.com Grand Prix of Portland on August 25. That means six of the final eight races will be on ovals.

This weekend is the much-anticipated Hy-Vee IndyCar Weekend at Iowa Speedway, beginning with Saturday’s Hy-Vee Homefront 250 presented by Instacart, and culminating with Sunday’s Hy-Vee One Step 250 presented by Gatorade. Many are saying so many ovals paves the way for Josef Newgarden to assert himself in the fight for the championship. Yes, Newgarden has won 6 of the past 7 oval races he has driven in. Had he not had a rear-wing failure in the second race at Iowa in 2022; he very well could have won 8 of the past 9 times he races an Indy car on an oval.

While that’s very impressive, that doesn’t mean there are no other drivers in the paddock that know how to win on an oval. If Newgarden can make a clean-sweep of the ovals for this season, he would deserve to win the championship (and probably will). Common sense says that probably won’t happen. Still I could see Newgarden winning three of the remaining six ovals on the schedule. Will that mean that will start this weekend? Read on.

After a roughly eleven-hour drive yesterday, Susan and I arrived at our hotel in nearby Marshalltown, Iowa last night. Since track activity does not get underway until this afternoon, we will take it easy around the hotel this morning before heading to the track before lunchtime. Marshalltown appears to be about 35 minutes due north of the track, so it shouldn’t be too much of a hassle.

Going to a new racing venue is always fun. We get to go and explore the track and the surrounding area. This will be the first new track we have visited in a while. Susan stayed home when I visited Texas last spring for the first time. Technically, you could say that the first Music City Grand Prix was a new track for us, but if it takes place in our home town, does that really count? I guess the first time we went to St. Petersburg in 2019 was the last time we both went to a new venue for us, where we did not know the lay of the land.

While I enjoy road courses, my first love has always been ovals. The Indianapolis 500 is unique in that you cannot see the entire track from any seat. That is not true for any other ovals I’ve been to – even Fontana and Pocono.. With Iowa being such a short oval (0.875-mile), I’m sure that will be the case also.

Iowa Speedway is one of the newest tracks on the schedule – especially for an oval. Consequently, I have been told by friends that it is also one of the nicest tracks with tons of amenities – and that is not counting what Hy-Vee does for the track on the IndyCar weekend. Not counting IMS, I would say that the tracks that have had the nicest amenities (at least from a media standpoint) would be a tie between Fontana, Sonoma and Texas. Hearing that Iowa may be nicer than those venues is setting the bar pretty high.

If you go down the list of former IndyCar winners at Iowa, you’ll notice that there are no flukes. OK, some might consider Marco Andretti winning at Iowa in 2011 to be a fluke, but there is no denying he had the best car that night. It just happened to be one of his two career wins.

Other than that, the list of winners reads like a Who’s Who. Dario Franchitti (twice), Tony Kanaan, Dan Wheldon, Ryan Hunter-Reay (three times), James Hinchcliffe (twice), Helio Castroneves, Josef Newgarden (six times), Simon Pagenaud and Pato O’Ward. Of that list, Hinchcliffe, Andretti and O’Ward are the only ones to win at Iowa without winning the Indianapolis 500. As I said – very few flukes.

I will be curious to see what affect, if any, the hybrids have on an oval. I have always questioned how viable the hybrids will be on an oval, since there is so little braking to regenerate the battery. With this weekend being a double-header, we have two chances to find out.

Although I am not a big fan of going to concerts, Susan is. She is excited to see all four acts that will be appearing this weekend. She is most thrilled about Luke Combs, who will be the pre-race concert on Saturday. Eric Church will close out the Saturday night race. With Sunday’s race being at 11:00 am, the two Sunday concerts will both be after the race. Kelsea Ballerini will kick off the Sunday concerts, followed by Post Malone – who was the only act I had not heard of at all. Susan says she likes him, but I probably would not. After seeing his photo, I know why she said that.

I will have a post up here midday after we arrive at the track, to give our first impressions. Then, I will return late this afternoon for a wrap-up of practice. Susan will have a post on Saturday morning, shortly after we arrive at the track. Then I will have subsequent posts after each race. If I am dragged to the Luke Combs concert, I doubt that I will have a qualifying report before Race One.

Please note that all times quoted are Central Time (local time). Things get started with what is known as Free Family Friday, a chance for fans to get in free and watch Indy NXT and IndyCar Practice, along with Indy NXT Qualifying. Friday’s IndyCar practice gets underway at 3:30 pm local time (CDT) and will last until 5:00 pm CDT, although there will be a special session to “rubber-in” the track, beginning at 2:45 pm CDT. It will be available live on Peacock. IndyCar qualifying for both races will take place at 2:45 pm CDT Saturday. I imagine it will be the usual oval double-header format of Lap 1 deciding starting spot for Race One and Lap 2 deciding the grid for Race Two on Sunday. Race One coverage will begin at 7:00 pm CDT on Big NBC, which is a pleasant surprise. It’s tough to get a race on Saturday night network TV. Race Coverage for Sunday’s race will begin at 11:00 am CDT.

Earlier, I mentioned that I did not think that Josef Newgarden would sweep the oval races in 2024, despite his outstanding record on ovals over the past two seasons. Will he sweep Iowa, like he did last year? No, but I predict he will win one of them like he did in 2022. Which one, I have no way of even guessing. Who will win the other? A name that has been absent among IndyCar winners at Iowa – his teammate, Will Power. We’ll see.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on July 12, 2024 at 4:04 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.