2024 R11/12: Iowa

[John]

Congrats to JoNew on two fresh wins.

[MonteCristo]

Congrats to JoNew on two fresh wins.

Though it would help to keep the championship itself interesting.

[John]

Congrats to JoNew on two fresh wins.

Though it would help to keep the championship itself interesting.

Indeed. Two JoNew wins and Palou floundering around 10th-15th would be great for the championship.

Less than two months left in the season

[MonteCristo]

The Hy-Vee IndyCar Weekend at Iowa Speedway got under way on Friday with a 90-minute practice session and the 0.875-mile oval’s master maintained his place atop the field of 28 cars. Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden and the No. 2 Chevy lapped the circuit at 176.428mph and was shadowed by his teammate Scott McLaughlin in the No. 3 Chevy (175.968mph).

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Marcus Ericsson was third in the No. 8 Honda (175.877mph), Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta was fourth in the No. 26 Honda (175.531mph), and Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward was fifth in the No. 5 Chevy (175.470mph).

“We’ve got a pretty good package,” said a somewhat satisfied Newgarden. “It was just OK in race trim. It’s tricky. I wasn’t 100 percent where I wanted to be, but we have the potential to get where we need to.”

Under cloudy blue skies and warm temperatures in the low 80s, the late afternoon run was busy, and behind O’Ward, Ganassi’s Takuma Sato was sixth (175.288mph) and had Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s Christian Lundgaard nearby in seventh (174.364mph). Ed Carpenter Racing’s Ryan Hunter-Reay was eighth (174.204mph) and the car’s former driver, Conor Daly, was ninth for Meyer Shank Racing (174.003mph). Ganassi’s Scott Dixon rounded out the top 10 (173.943mph).

After 30 minutes, Newgarden was fastest with a 176.428mph lap, and behind him, Herta was second at 175.521mph. Hunter-Reay was third at 174.204mph, ahead of Ericsson at 173.811mph and Dixon at 173.687mph as Chevy- and Honda-powered drivers shared the top five.

https://racer.com/2023/07/21/iowa-maste ... -practice/

@John's prediction is on track.

[John]

What is it with Josef and this place....

Anyway, it's raceday, boys!

[John]

Power on pole for both days.

[John]

80 caution free laps in and the Penske armada is steamrolling the field.

1 Power
2 Mclaughlin
3 Newgarden

*tumbleweed*

everyone else

[John]

153 laps in and Rahal bins it for the first FCY. Power touched the wall a few laps earlier.

JoNew
McLaughlin
Pato
Power
Ericsson

[John]

Less than 50 (and one pitstop) to go and you'll never guess who's leading.

Quite enjoyable battles in the field. Such a bullring, this.

[John]

Ferrucci, Pedersen and DDF having a kerfluffle in the pits. Noobs.Things are heating up.

[John]

JoNew
McLaughlin
Pato
Marcus
Power

Everyone else a lap or more down. Good race! Really kicked off after the first round of pit stops.

Palou 8th, 9th, or something.

[MonteCristo]

Quite enjoyable battles in the field. Such a bullring, this.

Bring back The Mile!

Good result. Repeat this tomorrow for the championship, please Indycar.

[MonteCristo]

[theracer120]

This race was held in the future, and yet it was pretty old school.

Watching that has left me wondering how Ferrucci finished 3rd at Indy. I think he was a lap down by like lap 15. Herta lost a couple laps in the pits with a bad stop and finished 5 laps ahead of him.

[John]

This race was held in the future, and yet it was pretty old school.

Watching that has left me wondering how Ferrucci finished 3rd at Indy. I think he was a lap down by like lap 15. Herta lost a couple laps in the pits with a bad stop and finished 5 laps ahead of him.

Foyt has bad dampers and they struggle on bumpy courses. Such as Iowa. Quite good at Indy but the team has lots of development work to do.

Anyway, let's go!