Round 12: IS Iowa 300, Newton, Iowa. July 19-20.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Round 12: IS Iowa 300, Newton, Iowa. July 19-20.

The AAA, (American Automobole Association) held it's first race in Iowa at the Tri-State Fair Grounds, in Burlington on July 9, 1915, with a distance of 100 miles (160 km). The AAA also hosted events at Des Moines Speedway in Valley Junction, on a one mile (1.60 km) wooden board track, in 1915 and 1916. The track though was closed and dismantled soon after.

Construction of the current speedway began towards the end 2005 and was completed in July 2006. It is modelled after the Richmond International Raceway, with a track width of 60 feet and 12-14 degree compound banking in the turns. The front stretch features 10 degrees of banking and the backstretch has 4 degrees of banking.

Iowa Speedway was the first track to install SAFER Barrier around its entire perimeter and to subsequently use the second generation of the barrier, which doesn't use a concrete wall behind the energy absorbing structure.

The first major event to be held at the new venue, was also the Indy Racing League's inaugural Iowa Corn Indy 250, on June 24, 2007, which was won by Dario Franchitti, driving a Dallara IR05-Honda HI7R V8 for Andretti Green Racing. From 2014, the race distance was increased to 262.5 miles (422.45 Km) or 300 laps.

Iowa Speedway is the shortest track on the IndyCar calendar, at 0.875 miles (1.408 Km) long, with an average lap time of under 18 seconds. Qualifying is decided by a two-lap speed average.

Track:


Length:
0.894 miles - 1.408 km
Turns: 4

Lap record:
Helio Castroneves, July 12, 2014 17.2283 seconds, 186.809 mph (300.64 km/h).
Team Penske,
Dallara DW12-Chevrolet Indy V6.

Some trivia:
Driver with the most wins: Ryan Hunter-Reay, 3: 2012, 2014, 2015.
Team with most wins: Andretti Autosport, 7: 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015.


Last year's race

Will Power took Pole for the second year in a row and went into the lead at the start, fending of a challenge from teammate Newgarden, while Ryan Hunter-Reay was forced to defend third place, from the third Penske of Simon Pagenaud, who then lost fourth to Alexander Rossi on Lap 2, only to come back around the outside of him on Lap 4. Meanwhile championship leader Scott Dixon held off Robert Wickens who was folowed by Ed Jones, Takuma Sato, Hinchcliffe, Ed Carpenter and Zach Veach.

On Lap 9, Jones dived down the inside of Wickens to grab seventh and soon Wickens’ teammate Hinchcliffe did the eventually passing Dixon and Rossi by Lap 20.

On Lap 24, Power washed up the track behind backmarker Marco Andretti, losing momentum and giving up the lead to Newgarden. Third Penske driver Pagenaud to lose his spot to the flying Hinchcliffe, passed Hunter-Reay on Lap 39. His next target was Power whom he swep past at the start of Lap 41; he was now 8.2 seconds behind Newgarden.

Ed Jones was the first of the frontrunners to pit, with Rahal, Pagenaud and Carpenter following on Lap 70. Now on fresh tires, they quickly unlapped themselves from race leader Newgarden.

Hunter-Reay, Veach, Hinchcliffe all pitted just after the 75 Lap mark, while Newgarden stopped on Lap 80 along with Power, who he'd been just about to lap and Wickens. Then it was Dixon’s and Rossi’s turn but Rossi stalled and had to be bump-started falling a further lap behind.

Newgarden emerged in front of Hinchcliffe by 4.5 seconds, with Pagenaud a similar distance behind, followed by Hunter-Reay, Pigot and Sato. Power was the one who hadn't pitting sooner for fresh rubber, was unable to keep pace with the leader and tumbled to 10th briefly, before climbing to 7th by Lap 90.

On Lap 107, Power tried to keep Newgarden behind and stay on the lead lap as he attempted to get around Dixon. Meanwhile Ed Jones, having given up on a three-stop strategy, made the second of four stops for fresh tires and flew past all three of them. Wickens overtook Power, who dropped to eighth.

On Lap 139, came the the first full-cousre yellow, when Veach, who had caught fire briefly in pitlane regained his composure and passed Power for eighth, drifted up into the gray at Turn 4 and hit the wall.

On Lap 142, the pits briefly opened and Newgarden, Hinchcliffe, Pigot and Sato pitted from the top four places, while the others stayed out to get back on the lead lap. The pits were then closed again and Race Control took the opportunity to sweep the track of marbles. The rest of the field stopped when the pits reopened on Lap 146. The running order was now, Newgarden, Hinchcliffe, Pigot, Sato, Pagenaud, Hunter-Reay, Power, Wickens, Carpenter and Rahal.

The restart saw a lap-and-a-half, of side-by-side racing between Pigot and Hinchcliffe, which was briefly resolved in favor of Pigot, before Hinchcliffe got ahead on Lap 153. Wickens, meanwhile, got past Power and a couple of laps later, Hunter-Reay, to take sixth place. Hinchcliffe now closed in on Newgarden.

On lap 164, Power dived past Hunter-Reay to snatch seventh and on Lap 171, at the front of the field, Sato almost rubbed wheels with Pigot, as he went down the inside through Turns 3 and 4, moving up to third place.

Hinchcliffe was now running one second behind leader Newgarden, but on Lap 214, Hinchcliffe had a moment through Turn 4, allowing Sato up into second and now finding himself under pressure from Pigot and Wickens.

Hunter-Reay and Pigot dived into the pits on Lap 222, and Hinchcliffe, Newgarden, Power, Wickens and Sato would soon follow suit. The winner in the pitstop shuffle was Pigot, who moved into second ahead of Hinchcliffe, Wickens and Sato. The loser was Hunter-Reay who had to pit again and fell three laps behind. The three-time Iowa winner would then make several more stops before he retired 20 laps from home.

On Lap 250, with 50 to go, Hinchcliffe passed Pigot for second place and set about closing the 1.3 second gap on Newgarden, catching him as they hit traffic. When Newgarden couldn’t get past Power, who was determined to stay on the lead lap, Hinchcliffe made his move down the inside of Newgarden at Turns 3 and 4 and took the lead of an IndyCar race for the first time since Phoenix in April.

As his tyres began to lose grip in the final 25 laps, Pigot fell back and Wickens grabbed third, while Power and Rahal went past Pagenaud in traffic. Then out came the second yellow of the day, with just seven laps to go, when Ed Carpenter got sideways at Turn 2 and had his front wing run over by Sato, leaving an endplate on the track.

When pitlane opened, Newgarden, Wickens, Rahal, Pagenaud and Carpenter all stopped, taking on new tires. However, there wasn’t enough time to get back to green flag racing and they all lost track position.

Hinchcliffe was the winner ahead of Pigot, who had his best IndyCar finish, with Sato ahead of Newgarden, Wickens, the lapped Power, Rahal, Pagenaud, Carpenter and the recovering Rossi.

However, following an examination of the results, Rossi was moved up the results table, ahead of Carpenter and into ninth.

Last Year's Pole - Two lap average.
Will Power:
Lap 1, 17.6801.
Lap 2, 17.6112.
Average 35.2913. 182.391 mph (293.529 km/h)
Team Penske,
Dallara IR18-Chevrolet IndyCar V6

Last year's winner:
James Hinchcliffe,
Schmidt Peterson Motorsport,
Dallara IR18-Honda HI18TT V6 Indy

Laps: 300
Distance: 262.50 Miles (422.452 km)
Race Time: 1:47:32
Average Speed: 149.636 mph (240.815 km/h)

Cautions: 2
Laps 17

Broadcast: NBCSN. July 20, 7:00pm ET.