The NTT IndyCar Series visits its third oval of the season as they hit the short track of Iowa Speedway. Simon Pagenaud won the Indy 500 with Josef Newgarden victorious on the fast 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway. Oval tracks can be unpredictable, so this week could produce another new winner.
Last week’s watchlist was quite accurate, predicting that Newgarden and Alexander Rossi would finish close to one another (they were one position apart), that Scott Dixon would rebound into the top five (he finished second), and that Pagenaud would make up points on the leaders (he won).
Here are some of the storylines to watch this Sunday
- Newgarden enters the Iowa race with a current three-race streak of top-fives this season. Newgarden should easily add to his run of strong results since he has finished sixth or better in his last five Iowa races.
- Graham Rahal has a great chance to keep his current five-race, top-10 streak alive this week. He has eight such finishes in 11 races on this lightning fast short track.
- Last week’s suggestion that Newgarden and Rossi would finish close to one another proved accurate so it’s time to double down. Newgarden’s fourth-place finish was one spot short of Rossi in third. In the past three races, Newgarden and Rossi have not finished more than two positions different and can be expected to run together again at Iowa.
- James Hinchliffe came close to cracking the top five for the first time in 2019 at Toronto. Hinchliffe’s sixth-place finish there was his third of the season. Now it’s on to Iowa where he is the defending winner from 2018; he also won in 2013. Those are his only two top-fives in seven attempts on this track.
- If Tony Kanaan is going to get a second top-10 this season, Iowa is a good venue for it to occur. Seven of Kanaan’s last nine races on this track have ended in results of ninth or better included a five-race streak of podium finishes from 2010 through 2014.