IndyCar: Iowa could be the perfect place for Pagenaud's first oval win - MotorSportsTalk

Few would argue that Simon Pagenaud has entered the highest echelon of drivers currently competing in the Verizon IndyCar Series at the moment.

As Pagenaud looks to take down the relative mights of Team Penske, Andretti Autosport and Target Chip Ganassi Racing and deliver a title for the Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Motorsports organization, he can put himself in better contention with his first career oval win.

Iowa Speedway this weekend for the Iowa Corn Indy 300 presented by DEKALB presents a pretty good place for Pagenaud to pull it off.

Pagenaud turned in one of his best career drives at Iowa two years ago, coming from 25th and last on the grid up to fifth. A year ago, he was sixth after starting eighth.

Considering Iowa is a high-speed track but only 0.875 of a mile, it races a bit like a road course, and that plays to Pagenaud’s benefit.

“Compared to the superspeedways on the IndyCar schedule, the biggest difference you’ll see at Iowa is the larger wings on the cars,” Pagenaud said in the team’s advance release. “We use the road course wing so that we have more downforce. You can be way more aggressive than on a superspeedway, where it’s all about being smooth and on the edge of grip.”

At 402 points, Pagenaud sits 44 behind Penske teammates Will Power and Helio Castroneves. A win would gain him at least 10 on either of them, and it would also make him the first driver to win three races this year.

“We’ve caught up a lot of points in the last three races, picking up 50 points on the lead,” Pagenaud said. “We’ve been competitive everywhere, and I feel confident where we’re sitting. The next few races coming up suit me well, and anything is possible at this point. We’re right in the hunt with seven races left, and this is a very exciting time for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports.”

Pagenaud’s future remains a question mark as reports began at the Houston weekend that other teams are seeking his services for 2015 and beyond.

But for now, he remains the man to watch as the proverbial thorn in the big teams’ sides. An oval win would only add to that distinction.

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Media and fan attention focused on a controversial run-in between Haiden Deegan and his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammate Jordon Smith during Round 10 of the Monster Energy Supercross race at Detroit, after which the 250 East points’ Hunter Lawrence defends the young rider in the postrace news conference.

Deegan took the early lead in Heat 1 of the round, but the mood swiftly changed when he became embroiled in a spirited battle with teammate Smith.

On Lap 3, Smith caught Deegan with a fast pass through the whoops. Smith briefly held the lead heading into a bowl turn but Deegan had the inside line and threw a block pass. In the next few turns, the action heated up until Smith eventually ran into the back of Deegan’s Yamaha and crashed.

One of the highlights of the battle seemed to include a moment when Deegan waited on Smith in order to throw a second block pass, adding fuel to the controversy.

After his initial crash, Smith fell to seventh on the next lap. He would crash twice more during the event, ultimately finishing four laps off the pace in 20th.

The topic was inevitably part of the postrace news conference.

“It was good racing; it was fun,” Deegan said at about the 27-minute mark in the video above. “I just had some fun doing it.”

Smith had more trouble in the Last Chance Qualifier. He stalled his bike in heavy traffic, worked his way into a battle for fourth with the checkers in sight, but crashed a few yards shy of the finish line and was credited with seventh. Smith earned zero points and fell to sixth in the standings.

Lawrence defends Deegan — *Jordon Smith failed to make the Detroit Supercross Main and fell to sixth in the points. – Feld Motor Sports*

“I think he’s like fifth in points,” Deegan said. “He’s a little out of it. Beside that it was good, I don’t know. I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Deegan jokingly deflected an earlier question with the response that he wasn’t paying attention during the incident.

“He’s my teammate, but he’s a veteran, he’s been in this sport for a while,” Deegan said. “I was up there just battling. I want to win as much as everybody else. It doesn’t matter if it’s a heat race or a main; I just want to win. I was just trying to push that.”

As Deegan and Smith battled, Jeremy Martin took the lead. Deegan finished second in the heat and backed up his performance with a solid third-place showing in the main, which was his second podium finish in a short six-race career. Deegan’s first podium was earned at Daytona, just two rounds ago.

But as Deegan struggled to find something meaningful to say, unsurprisingly for a 17-year-old rider who was not scheduled to run the full 250 schedule this year, it was the championship leader Lawrence who came to his defense.

“I just want to point something out, which kind of amazes me,” Lawrence said during the conference. “So many of the people on social media, where everyone puts their expertise in, are saying the racing back in the ’80s, the early 90s, when me were men. They’re always talking about how gnarly it was and then anytime a block pass or something happens now, everyone cries about it.

“That’s just a little bit interesting. Pick one. You want the gnarly block passes from 10 years ago and then you get it, everyone makes a big song and dance about it.”

Pressed further, Lawrence defended not only the pass but the decision-making process that gets employed lap after lap in a Supercross race.

“It’s easy to point the finger,” Lawrence said. “We’re out there making decisions in a split millisecond. People have all month to pay their phone bill and they still can’t do that on time.

“We’re making decisions at such a fast reaction [time with] adrenaline. … I’m not just saying it for me or Haiden. I speak for all the guys. No one is perfect and we’re under a microscope out there. The media is really quick to point a finger when someone makes a mistake.”

The media is required to hold athletes accountable for their actions. They are also required to tell the complete story.

IndyCar: Iowa could be the perfect place for Pagenaud’s first oval win

Hunter Lawrence defends Haiden Deegan after controversial block pass at Detroit

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