2016 Iowa Corn 300

Tonight marks the 10th edition of IndyCar racing at Iowa Speedway, the 7/8-mile D-oval racing circuit in Newton, Iowa.

In regards to IndyCar, this track has been dominated by one name; Andretti. Chip Ganassi Racing cars have won two races in Iowa, but the all of the other seven have been won by cars fielded by Andretti Autosport (this includes the past six in a row). Iowa is also currently known as the track where Marco Andretti, himself, last visited victory lane. That was in 2011, and Marco is certainly going for career victory #3 this weekend.

Tonight, however, it seems that a win from any of the Andretti drivers is going to be a tall order. Similarly to Phoenix (the other short oval of this season) in April, the aerokits on the Chevrolets have an undeniable advantage over the Hondas, with the top eight starting positions consisting entirely of Chevrolet cars. In fact, the fastest Andretti car (Carlos Muñoz; 15th) was outqualified by four other Hondas. Ryan Hunter-Reay, who has at this track three times including last year, will be starting all the way back in the 20th position.

At the other end of the starting grid, Simon Pagenaud has earned his fifth Verizon P1 Award of the season, giving Team Penske its 500th pole position in auto racing. This was accomplished in mere weeks less than 50 years; the team's first pole was won by Mark Donohue in August of 1966 (at Mid-Ohio in the United States Road Racing Championship). Josef Newgarden continues his outstanding season by qualifying on the outside of the front row. Castroneves will start from 3rd, Max Chilton starts from 4th at the track where he scored his only Indy Lights victory, and Charlie Kimball rounds out the top 5 starters.

Full qualifying results can be found here:

http://autoweek.com/article/indycar/simon-pagenaud-gives-team-penske-its-500th-racing-pole-position

Right now Josef Newgarden is Martin Truex-ing on the field. With the injuries he has, this is impressive.

Great drive by Newgarden.

Josef be like "Injured? nah fam I got this."

I want to give a shout out to Mikhail Aleshin and Alexander Rossi for their 5th and 6th place finishes.

bigdc48 wrote:Right now Josef Newgarden is Martin Truex-ing on the field. With the injuries he has, this is impressive.

And sets the record for the most laps led in an IndyCar race ever: 282 laps.

"Injuries? Who cares? I just whooped your ass." That's basically what he just said to the IndyCar field in this race.

Crazy how Newgarden kind of was just there before the injury, but has been on fire since injury. Helluva drive today by Newgarden, that's a star making performance.

Alta wrote:Crazy how Newgarden kind of was just there before the injury, but has been on fire since injury. Helluva drive today by Newgarden, that's a star making performance.

You say that, but he was up in the top 5 after Indy.

RetrogradeRenegade wrote:

Alta wrote:Crazy how Newgarden kind of was just there before the injury, but has been on fire since injury. Helluva drive today by Newgarden, that's a star making performance.

You say that, but he was up in the top 5 after Indy.

Indy before Road America i felt was his only good run of the year so far.

Josef Newgarden domination. Fun race for that reason for me.

So nice to see that the driver that dominated the race didn't drive for Roger or Chip! Great win for Newgarden.

Newgarden sure made that look easy. Really easy. I'm not surprised that he dominated a race considering that he's been really fast all year, but I wonder how many others would be as determined and unfazed as him while recovering from the injuries that he sustained so recently.

Forgot to give my review on this race. XD

Not really much to say. Newgarden kicked everyone's ass, leading the most laps anyone has ever led in an open wheel race. On a broken hand and clavicle. That's the heart of a true race car driver.

Star of the Race is Josef Newgarden, obviously.

Reject of the Race: the rest of the field. Seriously, Newgarden made them all look like rank amateurs.

The race was uneventful, but Newgarden's domination was fascinating, so I'll go on my Bret Hart shit and give it a 4/10.