This is one of the rare second impressions after an IndyCar race weekend and it is because so much happened in two races that a few items didn't make the cut in Sunday's post-race reflections. A few things happened during Sunday's post-race as well that shifted attention away from what happened on the track only a handful of minutes prior.
We are going to cover a few other notable things from what was an important weekend for IndyCar.
1. I had just finished and posted the First Impressions when the news of Josef Newgarden being airlifted to a Des Moines hospital after fainting and hitting his head after his accident in Sunday's race came out.
It is a jarring thing to write one thing completely set in your state of mind of knowing what happened and being confident in what you just saw only to turnaround and find out an event had occurred that completely flips what you previously thought had happened and you are unsure what happens next.
After his post-race interview and seeing Newgarden's determination breakthrough his disappointment, I was set on Newgarden taking no prisoners for the final five races and really making a championship push.
When you then hear Newgarden fell and needed to be airlifted to a hospital that changes how you think about the championship. The championship becomes inconsequential at that moment. Falls are scary, and when you consider Newgarden had just been in an automobile accident at 160 mph, many different things go through your mind. It wasn't a bad accident, but even the innocent accidents are violent. The championship took a backseat.
This is news you never want to hear, and you have to wait until the doctors get an official look at him, but my concern was leveled out hearing IndyCar medical director Dr. Geoffrey Billows speak. Dr. Billows was composed giving the report. If there was any sense of fear in his voice then I would have been worried, but Dr. Billows' tone reassured me that everything was under control and nothing was urgent.
I was as optimistic as you could be hearing when the report come out. The worst possible scenario didn't seem to be upon us, but it was far from what you want to hear about a driver after an accident.
2. IndyCar has done a great job with driver safety and wellness after accidents, especially with concussions. I will be honest I don't understand how every accident in motorsports doesn't result in a concussion. All the safety devices and advanced seatbelts in the world aren't going to stop the human brain from bouncing around inside the skull when in a high-G accident.
We will wait to hear about Newgarden's evaluation Thursday. I don't think IndyCar's medical team missed something and released Newgarden when he was unwell. There is a chance this all happened because of the accident, but there are many other factors in play. Heat, hydration level, emotions after the accident. Newgarden was distraught after the accident because he had this race wrapped up. He could have been upset to the point he passed out. People cry themselves to sleep. The combination of events could have overwhelmed Newgarden and this is how his body responded.
Of course, once you fall, what caused the fall isn't the concern but what happens afterward. People slip on accident and hit their head the wrong way and are seriously injured. It is scary to think about how close you can be from a traumatic head injury that changes your life and potentially robs you of the independence you have taken for granted.
With all scans from his hospital stay coming back negative, there is another sense of relief. We will wait to hear what the IndyCar medical team says on Thursday and go from there. Hopefully, Newgarden is cleared and will be back in the car for Friday practice.
3. With a shocking conclusion to race two, I completely forgot to mention the weekend for IndyCar and what happened at Iowa.
Two races, two days, two great crowds. The Indianapolis Star's Nathan Brown reported Saturday evening that Saturday had a sold out crowd of 38,000 people and at that time Sunday had a few hundred tickets available.
We also have eyes and could see there were a few bare spots at the top of the grandstands, but the grandstands looked just as good as ever at Iowa for IndyCar. They looked better than 2016-2019 when this race fluctuated with a late afternoon start on a Sunday. With this being more than a race weekend and four concerts taking place with notable acts, there is a chance 3,000 or 4,000 people showed up for Tim McGraw on Saturday, saw the concert, went to their cars for lunch or left for lunch and then returned for Florida Georgia Line without seeing more than 40 laps of racing.
The same probably happened on Sunday with Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton. Is that a problem? Not necessarily. The race was a part of an entire weekend event. There were 38,000 tickets on sale. All 38,000 tickets were accounted for. That is job well done for Penske Entertainment.
Now, you need people watching the race. These concerts weren't going to happen without the race. A healthy portion of the crowd was there for the race. That is comforting.
Reports are IndyCar will be back at Iowa for the next three years. I have to imagine they will continue this event as a doubleheader with a strong musical presence. It worked in year one. Done right, it will continue to be a success.
4. One reason for some of those open pockets in the grandstand was likely the weather. It was 100ยบ F on Saturday. You can live in those conditions, but they are suboptimal and frankly dangerous for many spectators. IndyCar doesn't have the youngest fan base. You cannot have 10,000 Baby Boomers out in those conditions. A good number are going to drop. A good number of young people would also drop in those temperatures, especially with enough alcohol in their systems.
There does come a point where no matter how good the races are and how good the musical acts are, the temperature will be too much.
Everyone shouts "night race" as the solution, and that would alleviate the heat issue, but it causes other problems that would economically shoestring IndyCar.
One, you are not getting a Saturday night race on network NBC, at least not the 9:00 p.m. Eastern start that would truly make a difference for the crowd. That race could be on USA, but the viewership would be significantly down.
Two, you are not running a Saturday night race and a Sunday afternoon race. Really think this out for a second. If the Saturday Iowa race started at 8:00 p.m. local and lasted for two hours, it would be done at 10:00 p.m., but we know the teams aren't done when the checkered flag waves. They need to take down the pit stand and put away the tires and put the cars away in the garage after going through inspection and once all that is done it is well after midnight, likely closer to 1:00 a.m. and they still have to drive to the hotel. They likely wouldn't be back and in their rooms until 2:00 a.m., and that is if everything goes well. What happens if a team is in an accident or loses an engine? That is an all-nighter to get the car ready for the next day.
The Sunday Iowa race started at 2:20 p.m. local time this weekend. Are IndyCar teams really going to have only 13 hours to turnaround for another race? No. And before you say "well, run Sunday night." If you aren't getting a Saturday night race on network NBC, you definitely aren't getting a Sunday night race either and network NBC is part of the selling point for HyVee and all the sponsors involved in the weekend. Also, you probably aren't getting 38,000 people to show up at 8:00 p.m. on a Sunday night in Newton, Iowa.
Three, do you remember what happened in 2019? It rained. The IndyCar race was delayed multiple times and I don't think the race ended until after 2:00 a.m. Eastern. Imagine if that was the first race of the doubleheader. Imagine if Saturday was a completely wash.
Oval races are not conducive to be doubleheaders. I am really interested in what IndyCar's contingency plans are if it rained on Saturday at Iowa. We all remember the 2014 Toronto doubleheader. Saturday was washed out, we had both races on Sunday and they were both shortened to 65 laps with the second race further shorted due to a time limit after a few accidents. The difference between Toronto and Iowa is Toronto is a motorsports event and Iowa is trying to sandwich the races between concerts.
Toronto had to move some races around to fit the IndyCar events, but it managed. The promoters cannot move the concerts all that much. You aren't making Gwen Stefani go out at 11:00 a.m. because IndyCar needs the track at 1:00 p.m. to get race one in and then force Blake Shelton out at 4:00 p.m because race two will now be at 6:00 p.m.
I am actually curious if IndyCar could have fit in both races at their advertised distances with both concerts on Sunday. Would IndyCar have done something crazy and shortened one race to 200 laps? Would both races become 200 laps? If you lop off 20% of these races, you could run 200 laps in almost an hour. There is a world where IndyCar could run a 200-lap race before the first concert and still easily fill the scheduled race time with another race. Of course, any cars that have a problem in race one would be done for race two before it even started.
I almost feel like the only plan if there was a rain out Saturday is the 250-lap race would move to Monday and there would be no way to get both races in on Sunday. That appears to be the only option that makes sense and it is still massively unideal.
We didn't have to explore those circumstances this year, but there is a chance we will at some point over the next three years Iowa is on the schedule.
Four, this event cannot move much in the calendar. IndyCar had hot races when the Iowa race was a month earlier in mid-June. The temperature isn't going to get much better in August either. May isn't happening and IndyCar isn't going to wait until late September for Iowa. It is stuck. Sunday worked out only being in the mid-80s but that feels like it has been a rarity for IndyCar at Iowa for the last decade. It feels like every year IndyCar has gone to Iowa the forecast has been for the 90s and no lower.
This is a summer event. It is made for the summer and summer happens to be brutal in Iowa.
5. I like the doubleheader oval qualifying format. No need for multiple sessions for multiple races. Have one session. Lap one sets the grid for race one. Lap two sets the grid for race two. Every lap matters. More drivers are eagerly watching the end of a session. It is efficient and it can provide some variety with the grid. Yes, I know Will Power won both pole positions and Newgarden started second for each race, but we don't need to create something excessive for oval doubleheader qualifying. Just set the grids and get onto the races. No qualifying format is going to bring more people to the racetrack.
6. For a few years we worried about Iowa because the crowds did shrink. IndyCar went away for a year and it returned with one of its best Iowa weekends ever.
What changed in a year? What changed in the last five or six years?
IndyCar and HyVee put a tremendous effort into this race and it goes to show if you try and promote a race, you can fill a place. Not to forget mentioning these weren't cheap tickets either. In the offseason, many complained about the ticket prices. Well, it looks like the price point didn't keep folks away.
How many oval races are truly dead? How many just need a fresh pair of eyes and new ideas?
I doubt 38,000 people showed up for the Texas race this year, and Texas once drew 80,000 people for IndyCar during the split. It is located in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the fourth-largest metropolitan market in the United States. There are no excuses for why Newton, Iowa has a larger attended IndyCar race than Texas Motor Speedway. Texas has attendance issues across the board. That suggests it is an operator and track management issue, and not a series issue.
Perspective is also important. This was a great crowd at Iowa. I went to every Pocono race from 2013 to 2019. The first year was around 30,000 people. It dipped but the final two or three years felt like 2013 if not bigger and Pocono still went away. There are a number of factors that go into whether a race sticks around, but could Pocono have been a greater success? Could Richmond have drawn a worthy audience if it had joined the IndyCar schedule in 2020 and toughed out a pandemic-stricken season for a full shot at a race in 2021? Are other recent IndyCar schedule casualties greater than what we saw?
This model isn't going to work everywhere. It is impractical to think IndyCar could have five weekends like this each season. IndyCar could possibly pull off another event like this or two, but it isn't adding a half-dozen oval races with this format.
Iowa worked because it had promotion behind it. There is a negative to draw from this that IndyCar isn't big enough to just draw 38,000 people for a race alone and it requires extra effort, but it does show IndyCar can draw notable crowds when it has enough backing and exposure. It would have been really bad if IndyCar and HyVee had done all this work for Iowa and only drawn 15,000 or 20,000 each day. That would speak to how irrelevant and redundant IndyCar is to the general population. It is still mostly irrelevant to majority of Americans, but in the right hands it can put on a respectable event that injects encouragement into paddock.
