The Wide World of Dirt

The dawning of a new era ended up looking like just another dog day of summer last week at Mid-Ohio.

Points leader Alex Palou snagged the pole, but it was his row 1 counterpart — Pato O’Ward — that stole the show.

The debut of the hybrid unit got off to an inauspicious start for the series’ most battle-tested veteran, Scott Dixon.

A six-time race winner at Mid-Ohio, Dixon’s ailing car shut itself off on the final pace lap, truncating his bid for a seventh win in the Honda 200. This forced the race to start under yellow, the only caution of the race.

When the race finally saw the green, the two-time IndyCar champion sprinted away with the lead for the first 30 laps and retook the lead from Scott McLaughlin after the first set of pit stops.

It looked like business as usual for Palou and his Chip Ganassi #10 Honda, but the Arrow McLaren hotshot found more speed in his #5 Chevy on the alternate tire.

O’Ward and McLaren performed an undercut on Palou, pitting on lap 54 and leaving Palou out on track with those older alternate tires.

The gambit worked because Palou stalled his car when it dropped off the jack, moving Pato by for the lead.

A thrilling cat-and-mouse battle broke out between the two, Palou’s front wing shrouded by O’Ward’s shadow. It wouldn’t be enough as Pato led the final 24 laps on his way to his second win of the 2024 season.

The News

Formula 1 standout Valtteri Bottas appears to be on the outs with Sauber for 2025, and some IndyCar teams are keen to give the Finnish driver a home.

According to journalist Elizabeth Blackstock, Bottas could land with the likes of Dale Coyne Racing, Meyer Shank Racing, or Prema, among others.

The 10-time GP winner has expressed interest in heading to America’s premier open-wheel division in the past, and the series offers a lot of great tracks for the former Mercedes driver to flex his muscles.

Katherine Legge joined the entry list for this weekend, piloting the #51 Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Honda. This marks Legge’s first non-Indy 500 appearance in an IndyCar since Iowa back in 2012.

One last bit of news is former NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Hailie Deegan testing out an IndyNXT car at Iowa this weekend with former IndyCar champion Simon Pagenaud watching on.

The not-so-secret test session could shed some light on what the 22-year-old’s future might hold, but for now, it’s nothing more than a rumor.

The Track

Track owner US Motorsport Entertainment Corporation broke ground on Iowa Speedway in June 2005 before opening the doors to the track for its first laps of competition in September the following year.

IndyCar made their maiden voyage to Corn Country in 2007 where Dario Franchitti led 98 of 250 laps on his way to winning the inaugural Iowa Corn 250.

The NTT IndyCar Series made an annual stop in Iowa from 2007 to 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic put the track’s future in jeopardy.

After hosting an ARCA race in 2021, IndyCar returned to Iowa in 2022 with renewed financial interest in the facility from supermarket chain Hy-Vee for a doubleheader that pointed Iowa Speedway in the right direction.

Today, Josef Newgarden owns the wins record at the circuit with six trips to victory lane in his career, and the back-to-back Indy 500 winner looks poised to find his way there again this weekend.

Rounding turn 4, drivers enter the curved front straight to start their lap before descending into turns 1 & 2.

Going from the frontstretch’s 10° of banking to turn 1’s 12° of banking on the bottom offers a unique challenge to drivers as the banking increases to 14° by the wall.

This should open up opportunities for drivers to find different lines to pass cars throughout the day.

But. NASCAR had to go and ruin that.

Current track owner NASCAR — in its infinite wisdom — decided to buck that trend by paving the bottom two lanes in the turns, making the top grooves of the track harder to parse.

This eliminates the potential for line diversity and cheapens the overall product, similar to what is seen at the widely-maligned Texas Motor Speedway.

Worst of all, this takes place on the bottom two lanes of all four turns, giving the track a visually-distinct look for its inaugural race weekend.

If you’d like to read more about the interesting process that went into halfway-repaving Iowa Speedway, here’s Jeff Gluck’s article from The Athletic last month.

I normally try not to use this platform to influence my audience, but on a personal note, please wear sun protection if you plan to attend this weekend’s racing. The UV index for race day is 11; that’s something you won’t want to mess with.

Keep yourselves hydrated, and if you start feeling unwell, it’s okay to leave the race to collect yourself or get help from the medical team at the track. They are there to help you.

Weather & Fast Facts

The forecast for tonight’s race shows the weather dipping out of this heat advisory and into the mid-to-low 70s by the time the race kicks off.

As for Sunday, it’ll be run in the heat of the day around noon, peaking at 92°F, so again, please make sure to keep yourselves hydrated and protected when heading to the race track.

To give you a glimpse at what a normal race looks like at Iowa, I’ve crunched the numbers from every IndyCar race at Iowa dating back to 2014.

The average Iowa race sees 3 cautions, 37 caution laps, 8 lead changes, 277 position passes, a final caution flag waving on lap 204, and lasts 1 hour and 49 minutes.

Both races will be featured on NBC. Saturday’s race coverage begins at 8pm Eastern time while Sunday’s race is an early-afternoon affair, starting at noon/12pm Eastern.

Saturday’s Hy-Vee Homefront 250 will run for 250 laps under the Iowa Speedway lights, meaning the track’s surface will be cooler and have more grip.

On the other hand, Sunday’s Hy-Vee One Step 250 will run in the hungry field of drivers for 250 laps in the heat of the day, meaning the drivers will be doing their best to hang onto their cars as they rocket around the World’s Fastest Short Track.

The Odds

As with every week, the betting odds we’ll be analyzing come from the fine folks over at DraftKings.

Last week’s winner Pato O’Ward (+500) lines up as this week’s second favorite. The 25-year-old from Monterrey, Mexico landed his second win of 2024 in Mid-Ohio and vaulted himself up to third in points behind former champions Palou and Will Power.

The last time Pato crossed the finish line first wasn’t at St. Petersburg but at Iowa Speedway, the second leg of the first doubleheader weekend in 2022. With a renewed sense of confidence, look for the spirited driver to contend for wins.

Below Pato is Chip Ganassi Racing driver Alex Palou (+550). The Spaniard doesn’t have much success to boast about in the Hawkeye State, only earning his first podium at the small oval in last year’s doubleheader.

Palou’s development on the ovals has been a real treat to watch from the sidelines, and nothing would be more gratifying for the defending series champ than scoring his first oval victory in one of this weekend’s events.

Behind Palou is none other than Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin (+700). The dynamic Kiwi owns two podium finishes in the Iowa cornfields, meaning this might be his best opportunity to steal a win from his two title-wielding teammates.

McLaughlin put his car on the pole for this year’s Indianapolis 500, and he’s been lurking in plain sight ever since, just a bit slower than the top-2 last week. Scotty Mac wants to snatch his second win this year; Iowa presents a golden opportunity.

Writer’s Pick

My bold selection of David Malukas didn’t quite pan out in Mid-Ohio as the Meyer Shank racer completed the race in 12th.

But, make no mistake, I’m picking the winner of at least one race this weekend. I guarantee he will win a race.

Josef Newgarden (+190) has visited Iowa 14 times since joining the series in 2012, and after winning his first race at the track in 2016, the Tennessean tacked on five more wins to extend his wins record to six.

Joe New knows how to get around this track better than anyone else, leading a gargantuan 1847 laps for 1616 miles and scoring 10 top-5s.

With so much uncertainty with the new hybrid unit, some expect this and the Frankenstein repave to deter the King of Corn, but Newgarden is racing royalty in the Hawkeye State. He will further his legacy in Newton with a seventh and perhaps even an eighth win this weekend.

(Top Photo Credit: Ed Carpenter Racing)