INDYCAR Preview – Iowa Corn Indy 300

By Jul 5, 2018, 7:00 PM EDT
Photo: IndyCar
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A busy summer stretch for the Verizon IndyCar Series continues this weekend with the Iowa Corn Indy 300 (Sunday July 8, 2:00 p.m. ET). Sunday’s 300-lap outing at the .875-mile oval in Newton Iowa will be the second and final short oval event of the IndyCar season, following April’s Desert Diamond West Valley Casino Phoenix Grand Prix at ISM Raceway.

April’s event gave an indication for how the 2018 universal aero kit handles short ovals – the show at ISM Raceway was definitely an improvement. Sunday’s race at Iowa Speedway should thoroughly entertaining – the Iowa “bull ring” has historically been one of the best races of the IndyCar calendar, and there’s no reason to think this year’s edition will be any different.

Talking points ahead of the Iowa Corn Indy 300 are below.

Championship Rivals Look to Close on Dixon

Scott Dixon leads the IndyCar championship entering Texas. Photo: IndyCar

Scott Dixon leads the IndyCar championship standings with 393 points, 45 points clear of his next closest rival.

However, behind Dixon, the remainder of the top five are incredibly tight. Ryan Hunter-Reay and Alexander Rossi are tied with 348 points. Josef Newgarden sits fourth on 343. Will Power sits fifth with 328.

Those four currently have the best shot at catching Dixon – sixth place Graham Rahal sits 115 points back of Dixon and would need some help to gain substantial ground.

All told, there are five drivers currently in the championship picture, and second through fifth are well within range of Dixon entering Iowa. It will be all but impossible for anyone other Dixon to leave Iowa in the points lead – 45 is the maximum points swing, meaning either Hunter-Reay or Rossi could tie Dixon after Sunday’s race – but anyone from second through fifth could make a big dent in the championship lead.

Andretti Autosport Hopes for Return of Iowa Prowess

NEWTON, IA – JULY 12: Ryan Hunter-Reay driver of the #28 Andretti Autosport Dallara Honda celebrates after winning the Verizon IndyCar Series Iowa Corn Indy 300 presented by DEKALB at the Iowa Speedway on July 12, 2014 in Newton, Iowa. (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images)

Andretti Autosport has seven wins at Iowa Speedway, including six in a row between 2010 and 2015. That stretch of six in a row saw wins form drivers Tony Kanaan (2010), Marco Andretti (2011) Ryan Hunter-Reay (2012, 2014, and 2015), and James Hinchcliffe (2013) – Kanaan also won the series’ first race at Iowa in 2007.

However, the 2016 and 2017 races have been a struggle for Michael Andretti led squad. Rossi was the only Andretti Autosport to finish in the top 10 in 2016, and although Hunter-Reay finished a solid third last year, Rossi was the next best Andretti driver in 11th.

However, despite the recent struggles, Hunter-Reay is confident of another strong performance, highlighting a recent test as evidence that they’re regaining their short oval form.

“Iowa Speedway is certainly a special place for me and the team as a whole. I love short oval racing, but Iowa is one of my favorites,” said Hunter-Reay. “We’ve had lots of success here in the past, winning three times, however with a new car and a completely different aero package we have our work cut out for us to develop a new setup that will suit this car. We’re coming off a productive test, so we’re looking to keep the momentum we have rolling into the Iowa Corn 300 weekend and bring home another good result for the DHL Honda.”

And if Hunter-Reay and Rossi are to gain ground on Dixon, they’ll need every bit of that short oval prowess at Iowa.

Can Someone Score a Breakthrough Win?

Helio Castroneves ended a winless streak that dated back to 2014 by winning last year’s Iowa Corn Indy 300. And a number of drivers enter this year’s race on elongated winless streaks.

Tony Kanaan is the most prominent name on that list – his last win came in 2014 at the season-ending 500-mile race at Auto Club Speedway. Kanaan has a strong history at Iowa – he has won there twice – and A.J. Foyt Racing has been much stronger this year than in years past, leaving Kanaan in position to possibly end that winless streak.

However, several other drivers could be in for breakthrough wins of their own.

Robert Wickens has been knocking on the door all year, and he nearly won at ISM Raceway in April. His Schmidt Peterson Motorsports teammate James Hinchcliffe led laps that night before finishing sixth, and he finished fourth at Texas Motor Speedway, so Hinchcliffe could also be a contender to end a winless streak of his own that dates back to last year’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Simon Pagenaud sits eighth in the championship, but he hasn’t won since last year’s season-ending GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma. Takuma Sato is coming off his best result of 2018 after finishing fourth in the KOHLER Grand Prix at Road America. Ed Jones has four top 10s in a row, including a podium in Race 2 of the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit, and he was running second at ISM Raceway before he crashed.

In short, a number of drivers who haven’t won yet in 2018 are knocking on the door, and one of them could knock it down on Sunday.

Misc.

  • Sunday’s race will start much earlier in the day (2:00 p.m. ET, 1:00 p.m. local time) than last year, which started at 5:00 p.m. ET. The impact of running in the heat of the mid-afternoon will be an unknown heading into the weekend.
  • Matheus Leist dominated last year’s Indy Lights Presented by Coopers race at Iowa Speedway, leading 69 laps on the way to victory. He is yet to finish in the top 10 in an IndyCar race, though, but Iowa may be his opportunity yet for a breakout day.
  • Marco Andretti won at Iowa back in 2011 and finished second in 2012. Since then, though, his best finish is seventh (2015) and is one of only top 10s (ninth in 2013 is the other). He’ll look to reverse his fortune there on Sunday.

The Final Word…

From points leader Scott Dixon, who is looking for his first Iowa Speedway win:

“Iowa Speedway is such a tough track for racing Indy cars. You have very high G-force loading and there is always a lot of action on this little bullring style track. You really have to be on your game with traffic and the quick lap times. I really love this event and especially the fans that attend – they really love Indy car racing and show their support. We’ve had a few poles here over the years but the best we’ve finished so far is third – hopefully, we can change that this time.”

Here’s the IndyCar Weekend Schedule:

At-track schedule:

Saturday, July 7
11:15 a.m ET – 12:15 p.m. (10:15 a.m. – 11:15 a.m. local time) – Verizon IndyCar Series practice #1, Livestreamed on RaceControl.IndyCar.Com
3:00 p.m. ET (2:00 p.m. local time) – Qualifying for the Verizon P1 Award (single-car format, two laps each), airs LIVE on NBCSN
6:45 p.m. ET – 7:45 p.m. (5:45 p.m – 6:45 p.m. local time) – Verizon IndyCar Series practice #2, Livestreamed on RaceControl.IndyCar.Com

Sunday, July 8
2:00 p.m. ET (1:00 p.m. local time) – NBCSN on air
2:35 p.m. ET (1:35 p.m. local time) – Iowa Corn 300 (300 laps/268.2 miles), NBCSN (Live)

Here’s last year’s top 10

1. Helio Castroneves
2. JR Hildebrand
3. Ryan Hunter-Reay
4. Will Power
5. Graham Rahal
6. Josef Newgarden
7. Simon Pagenaud
8. Scott Dixon
9. Tony Kanaan
10. James Hinchcliffe

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‘It’s gnarly, bro’: IndyCar drivers face new challenge on streets of downtown Detroit

By Jun 2, 2023, 7:32 PM EDT
IndyCar Detroit downtown
James Black/Penske Entertainment
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DETROIT – It was the 1968 motion picture, “Winning” when actress Joanne Woodward asked Paul Newman if he were going to Milwaukee in the days after he won the Indianapolis 500 as driver Frank Capua.

“Everybody goes to Milwaukee after Indianapolis,” Newman responded near the end of the film.

Milwaukee was a mainstay as the race on the weekend after the Indianapolis 500 for decades, but since 2012, the first race after the Indy 500 has been Detroit at Belle Isle Park.

This year, there is a twist.

Instead of IndyCar racing at the Belle Isle State Park, it’s the streets of downtown Detroit on a race course that is quite reminiscent of the old Formula One and CART race course that was used from 1982 to 1991.

Formula One competed in the United States Grand Prix from 1982 to 1988. Beginning in 1989, CART took over the famed street race through 1991. In 1992, the race was moved to Belle Isle, where it was held through last year (with a 2009-2011 hiatus after the Great Recession).

The Penske Corp. is the promoter of this race, and they did a lot of good at Belle Isle, including saving the Scott Fountain, modernizing the Belle Isle Casino, and basically cleaning up the park for Detroit citizens to enjoy.

The race, however, had outgrown the venue. Roger Penske had big ideas to create an even bigger event and moving it back to downtown Detroit benefitted race sponsor Chevrolet. The footprint of the race course goes around General Motors world headquarters in the GM Renaissance Center – the centerpiece building of Detroit’s modernized skyline.

INDYCAR IN DETROIT: Entry list, schedule, TV info for this weekend

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Motor City is about to roar with the sound of Chevrolet and Honda engines this weekend as the NTT IndyCar Series is the featured race on the nine-turn, 1.7-mile temporary street course.

It’s perhaps the most unique street course on the IndyCar schedule because of the bumps on the streets and the only split pit lane in the series.

The pit lanes has stalls on opposing sides and four lanes across an unusual rectangular pit area (but still only one entry and exit).

Combine that, with the bumps and the NTT IndyCar Series drivers look forward to a wild ride in Motor City.

“It’s gnarly, bro,” Arrow McLaren driver Pato O’Ward said before posting the fastest time in Friday’s first practice. “It will be very interesting because the closest thing that I can see it being like is Toronto-like surfaces with more of a Long Beach-esque layout.

“There’s less room for error than Long Beach. There’s no curbs. You’ve got walls. I think very unique to this place.

PRACTICE RESULTS: Speeds from the first session

“Then it’s a bit of Nashville built into it. The braking zones look really very bumpy. Certain pavements don’t look bumpy but with how the asphalt and concrete is laid out, there’s undulation with it. So, you can imagine the cars are going to be smashing on every single undulation because we’re going to go through those sections fairly fast, and obviously the cars are pretty low. I don’t know.

“It looks fun, man. It’s definitely going to be a challenge. It’s going to be learning through every single session, not just for drivers and teams but for race control. For everyone.

“Everybody has to go into it knowing not every call is going to be smooth. It’s a tall task to ask from such a demanding racetrack. I think it’ll ask a lot from the race cars as well.”

The track is bumpy, but O’Ward indicated he would be surprised if it is bumper than Nashville. By comparison to Toronto, driving at slow speed is quite smooth, but fast speed is very bumpy.

“This is a mix of Nashville high-speed characteristics and Toronto slow speed in significant areas,” O’Ward said. “I think it’ll be a mix of a lot of street courses we go to, and the layout looks like more space than Nashville, which is really tight from Turn 4 to 8. It looks to be a bit more spacious as a whole track, but it’ll get tight in multiple areas.”

The concept of having four-wide pit stops is something that excites the 24-year-old driver from Monterey, Mexico.

“I think it’s innovation, bro,” O’Ward said. “If it works out, we’ll look like heroes.

“If it doesn’t, we tried.”

Because of the four lanes on pit road, there is a blend line the drivers will have to adhere to. Otherwise, it would be chaos leaving the pits compared to a normal two-lane pit road.

“If it wasn’t there, there’d be guys fighting for real estate where there’s one car that fits, and there’d be cars crashing in pit lane,” O’Ward said. “I get why they did that. It’s the same for everybody. I don’t think there’s a lot of room to play with. That’s the problem.

“But it looks freaking gnarly for sure. Oh my God, that’s going to be crazy.”

Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing believes the best passing areas will be on the long straights because of the bumps in the turns. That is where much of the action will be in terms of gaining or losing a position in the race.

“It will also be really easy to defend in my opinion,” Palou said. “Being a 180-degree corner, you just have to go on the inside and that’s it. There’s going to be passes for sure but its’ going to be risky.

“Turn 1, if someone dives in, you end up in the wall. They’re not going to be able to pass you on the exit, so maybe with the straight being so long you can actually pass before you end up on the braking zone.”

Palou’s teammate, Marcus Ericsson, was at the Honda simulator in Brownsburg, Indiana, before coming to Detroit and said he was shocked by the amount of bumps on the simulator.

Race promoter Bud Denker, the President of Penske Corporation, and Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix President Michael Montri, sent the track crews onto the streets with grinders to smooth out the bumps on the race course several weeks ago.

“They’ve done a decent amount of work, and even doing the track walk, it looked a lot better than what we expected,” Ericsson said. “I don’t think it’ll be too bad. I hope not. That’ll be something to take into account.

“I think the track layout doesn’t look like the most fun. Maybe not the most challenging. But I love these types of tracks with rules everywhere. It’s a big challenge, and you have to build up to it. That’s the types of tracks that I love to drive. It’s a very much Marcus Ericsson type of track. I like it.”

Scott Dixon, who was second fastest in the opening session, has competed on many new street circuits throughout his legendary racing career. The six-time NTT IndyCar Series champion for Chip Ganassi Racing likes the track layout, even with the unusual pit lane.

“I don’t think that’s going to be something that catches on where every track becomes a double barrel,” Dixon said. “It’s new and interesting.

“As far as pit exit, I think Toronto exit is worse with how the wall sticks out. I think in both lanes, you’ve got enough lead time to make it and most guys will make a good decision.”

It wasn’t until shortly after 3 p.m. ET on Friday that the IndyCar drivers began the extended 90-minute practice session to try out the race course for the first time in real life.

As expected, there were several sketchy moments, but no major crashes during the first session despite 19 local yellow flags for incidents and two red flags.

Rookie Agustin Canapino had to cut his practice short after some damage to his No. 78 Dallara-Chevrolet, but he was among many who emerged mostly unscathed from scrapes with the wall.

“It was honestly less carnage than I expected,” said Andretti Autosport’s Kyle Kirkwood, who was third fastest in the practice after coming off his first career IndyCar victory in the most recent street race at Long Beach in April. “I think a lot of people went off in the runoffs, but no one actually hit the wall (too hard), which actually surprised me. Hats off to them for keeping it clean, including myself.

“It was quite a bit less grip than I think everyone expected. Maybe a little bit more bumpy down into Turn 3 than everyone expected. But overall they did a good job between the two manufacturers. I’m sure everyone had pretty much the same we were able to base everything off of. We felt pretty close to maximum right away.”

Most of the preparation for this event was done either on the General Motors Simulator in Huntersville, North Carolina, or the Honda Performance Development simulator in Brownsburg, Indiana.

“Now, we have simulators that can scan the track, so we have done plenty of laps already,” Power told NBC Sports. “They have ground and resurfaced a lot of the track, so it should be smoother.

“But nothing beats real-world experience. It’s going to be a learning experience in the first session.”

As a Team Penske driver, Power and his teammates were consulted about the progress and layout of the Detroit street course. They were shown what was possible with the streets that were available.

“We gave some input back after we were on the similar what might be ground and things like that,” Power said.

Racing on the streets of Belle Isle was a fairly pleasant experience for the fans and corporate sponsor that compete in the race.

But the vibe at the new location gives this a “big event” feel.

“The atmosphere is a lot better,” Power said. “The location, the accessibility for the fans, the crowd that will be here, it’s much easier. I think it will be a much better event.

“It feels like a Long Beach, only in a much bigger city. That is what street course racing is all about.”

Because the track promoter is also the team owner, Power and teammates Scott McLaughlin and Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden will have a very busy weekend on the track, and with sponsor and personal appearances.

“That’s what pays the bills and allows us to do this,” Power said.

Follow Bruce Martin on Twitter at @BruceMartin_500