IndyCar – Iowa IndyCar 250s: Event Analysis

Race 1:

Conor Daly shocked the IndyCar paddock to score both his and Carlin’s first pole position in IndyCar, with the performance reigniting the talks as to why Daly doesn’t have a full time IndyCar drive.

As the sun set in Iowa, Daly lead reigning champion Josef Newgarden at the start, with Newgarden wasting no time to immediately attempt several overtakes on the Carlin driver, however Daly did not buckle under the pressure from the Penske driver. It took until Lap 14 for Newgarden to finally find his way past, pulling a successful move round the outside of Turn 1.

As darkness set in, so did the pitstops, and Simon Pagenaud found his way into the lead from the back of the grid, but out of sequence with the pitstops.

Everything was remaining relatively calm, that is until Lap 144, when Team Penske’s Will Power’s miserable season continued with a crash out of Turn 2. The replays showed that the left front tyre detached from the car before slamming into the outside barrier. The left front mechanic was trying to both change the tyre and adjust the front wing flaps simultaneously, a move that proved too much to do as the tyre was not properly attached.

The crash also proved why the Aeroscreen cockpit protection device was introduced this year, with powers flailing tyre narrowly missing his cockpit as the car slid across the circuit into the path of the tyre.

The Aeroscreen proved its worth mere minutes later – O’Ward lead McLaren teammate Askew at the restart with 2 lapped cars in between, however in his haste to get away, O’Ward jumped the restart, returning to racing speed before the designated ‘restart zone’. This meant the restart was called off, with cars slowing back down again, however at the back this didn’t go to plan.

Simon Pagenaud checked up as the yellows came back out after O’Ward jumped the restart, with Rinus Veekay just managing to avoid him. However, championship contender Colton Herta wasn’t able to react in time and launched over the back of Veekay’s Ed Carpenter car, over the top of his Aeroscreen, undoubtedly saving the Dutchman’s life.

Herta’s Andretti Harding Steinbrenner car flew extremely high in the air, before landing on top of the SAFER barrier tail down, before being thrown front first back to the ground. Herta was very lucky to so narrowly avoid the catchfence, as the crash would’ve been so much worse if he had flown into the fence, especially at the height he was at.

Herta's scary airborne crash with Veekay

It took until Lap 171 for the 2nd restart to finally take place, with Hunter-Reay and Newgarden a lap down battling to unlap themselves.

On Lap 176, Pagenaud found himself in the podium positions, and fought his way past Askew into P2, before a lap later snatching the lead from O’Ward.

The McLarens fell back into the closing stages of the race, with the lead battle now between Pagenaud and championship leader Scott Dixon, however no one was sure if Dixon was going to make it to the end of the race without making another pitstop.

Onto Lap 233, Dixon made his first move for the lead, however his aging tyres meant he had to settle for P2.

This left Simon Pagenaud to take his first win of the season, with an incredible drive from last to first, while McLaren’s Oliver Askew took his maiden IndyCar podium in P3.

The full results of Race 1 can be seen below:

Race 2:

Newgarden and Power shared the front row for Race 2, with Power wanting to kickstart what has been a pretty poor season so far for the Australian.

However it was Newgarden who won the start, with row 2 men Daly and Hunter-Reay battling over P3, with Hunter-Reay winning out.

Newgarden then pulled away from the field, while McLaren’s Pato O’Ward climbed his way up the field. By Lap 67 he was on the back of Will Power, and passed him through the final corner for P2 around the outside.

Power then fell further back on Lap 88 when Conor Daly passed him up the inside of the final corner, with the lapped car of Rosenqvist helping him secure P3. However as the race went on, Daly’s car started to lose pace, and by Lap 103, Power was close enough to send his Penske car up the inside of the Carlin to retake P3.

Soon later, on Lap 114, Ed Carpenter crashed after getting into the marbles at Turn 1 and impacting the outside wall. The car then slide back across the circuit, with Carpenter doing a good job to slow the car down before making what could have been a heavy frontal impact with the inside wall.

A beautiful sunset over Iowa Speedway during Race 2

The race restarted on Lap 127, and all eyes were on the 2 McLarens, as O’Ward and Askew went side-by-side. However, Askew was a lap down and holding up his teammate. Just behind the Mexican the lapped cars of Santino Ferrucci and Alexander Rossi were also battling, with Ferrucci making a bold move to slide in between O’Ward and Rossi to take the place away from the former F1 driver, nearly taking O’Ward out in the process.

A later, O’Ward made another attempt to pass his lapped teammate, however in doing so the McLarens made contact, when Askew misjudged how close O’Ward was when he came past. Thankfully however no damage was done and they both continued on.

Any chance of a win for O’Ward was about to slip away though, as on Lap 172 when he made his pitstop, the McLaren was released without left rear tyre properly attached. Fortunately both the team and O’Ward noticed before the McLaren drove too far away, but the ordeal cost them vital time to fight for the win.

However any embarrassment for McLaren was soon overshadowed by Ryan Hunter-Reay on Lap 180, who crashed at pit exit in an identical fashion to the day before, lighting up the tyres and spinning into the inside wall. An embarrassing mistake for the Andretti driver.

Newgarden lead the restart on Lap 193, and with lapped traffic between him and 2nd placed Power he looked set to increase his race lead.

And that is exactly what he did, with Newgarden not looking back all race, taking a dominant victory, and becoming the first driver to win an IndyCar race at Iowa Speedway from pole.

The full results of Race 2 can be seen below:

As a result, Scott Dixon still has a healthy lead in the championship, but Iowa winners Simon Pagenaud and Josef Newgarden slowly edge closer:

IndyCar returns for the Hondy Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio on August 9th.