With a 27-car grid at most races, any driver within 49 points of the championship leader will have a chance at claiming the Astor Cup at the Laguna Seca season finale. All Newgarden can do is shoot to get within 49 points of Álex Palou. That is the bare minimum he can hope for at this point in time. That might sound like shooting too low but being within 49 points is far from a guarantee. He has to at least get within one race of Palou before he can think about taking the title.
Newgarden decreased the deficit again this afternoon. It did not come down as much as he likely hoped for, but he is within 80 points with five races remaining. Newgarden has four races to outscore Palou by 31 points.
2. Another good race from Will Power, but again, Power did not have what Newgarden had, and after the slow start yesterday for Newgarden, the #2 Penske team dialed in that car and Newgarden got to the lead quicker today than on Saturday. Power did not fade as much but he could not match Newgarden this weekend. Power did power up to second on the late restart passing Felix Rosenqvist. Power earned a podium result this weekend.
3. This day was going to be much worse than Álex Palou would have wished. Palou was down in 13th at one point, and even after getting the car settled, he was looking at finishing eighth again or ninth, but Palou's car came to life in the final stint and he was able to crack the top five. When the Hunter-Reay caution came out, Palou was about two seconds ahead of Newgarden at the tail end of the lead lap. If that incident happened two laps later, Palou is trapped a lap down and he wouldn't have had a chance to finish better than fifth in all likelihood.
Palou picked off Scott McLaughlin, who struggled on worn tires, and then slipped ahead of Rosenqvist after Rosenqvist walked up the racetrack battling Power. Palou went from a day that looked destined to be outside the top ten to the podium. Instead of seeing the championship lead drop down to around 63 points, Palou leaves Iowa up 80. Clinching the championship two races early is still in play. If the title does come down to the finale and Palou pulls it out, this race will be a tentpole result for his championship.
4. Felix Rosenqvist evolved into the best Arrow McLaren entry today and ended up on Josef Newgarden's rear end after the final set of pit stops. Newgarden was able to get away, but Rosenqvist was strong and he probably should have finished second. Power had the jump on him and when Rosenqvist went up the track, all he could hope for was finishing fourth, because he wasn't going counter Power and it was a free spot for Palou at that point.
Rosenqvist had a tremendous day. These results are too far in-between for the Swede, but he was at the front of the Indianapolis 500. He has won pole position at Texas for the last two seasons. He has some craft on ovals, though the results don't always go his way.
5. Scott McLaughlin had nothing left on his tires at the final restart and he was a sitting duck in third. McLaughlin was holding on for dear life, and he had a blessing that only five cars were on the lead lap so he could take it easy and settle for fifth. All three Penske drivers were great this weekend. Unfortunately for Power and McLaughlin, Newgarden was flawless. Great weekend for the organization.
6. Let's focus on the finish here because Ryan Hunter-Reay brushed the wall with just over ten laps remaining, bringing out the caution. IndyCar used the abandonment of procedures protocol here and the pit lane never opened, meaning all the drivers ended the race on the tires they put on just over 50 laps earlier.
I liked that decision, and for all the crap race control gets, it earned this pat on the back. Race control made the right decisions to abandon procedures and not allow anyone to pit prior to that final restart.
One, we got a green flag finish. If you are obtuse and ignore 99.6% of a race, you got what you wanted. You do not get the right to complain.
Two, it didn't give any other lead lap driver a greater advantage over the leader. Everyone was wondering who would take tires and would anyone stay out. However, Newgarden thrashed the field. Palou was about to go a lap down when the caution came out. Instead of opening pit lane and potentially giving Palou an advantage, everyone was forced to race with what got them there.
That is how it should be. A driver shouldn't get a benefit from being at the back and having nothing to lose, especially if that driver was on the verge of being lapped and was in the top five. If you want to beat the guy, then beat the guy on a level playing field. Nobody had an advantage in that final restart. It was going to be on the drivers, a pure test of skill, and who could have the best four laps. This is how it should be. We should want the best drivers winning and not having drivers luck into victories because they could use a caution differently than the leaders.
There shouldn't be a benefit running at the end of the lead lap. There should be a benefit of being the leader.
I don't know where we draw the line though on not opening the pit lane. In the case of Iowa, if a caution bleeds into less ten laps remaining, there could be a clause that the pits don't open. Maybe it is different for Indianapolis and Texas, but the same standard could be held at Gateway as well. This is where it gets tricky. Like when a race should be red flagged if there is a late incident, there is no line in the sand on when it can and cannot happen. This year at Indianapolis, we tested the limit of how late a race can restart from a red flag. We hit the limit actually. It can be tiresome when regulations are added on top of regulations, but they are necessary.
7. That late caution and abandonment of procedures did create a fun split race. There were the five cars battling for the top five positions and then another eight drivers that were one lap down battling. Scott Dixon was the best of those finishers in sixth. Dixon was at the same level as he was at yesterday. He didn't make a step-forward today.
Dixon overtook Colton Herta late, as Herta struggled on his tires, but this was a better day for Herta. Herta did continue to struggle at the end of stints, and that was notable late. At one point, Herta looked like he could finish on the podium, but he lost ground. However, after yesterday and a handful of dismal races this season, seventh is a something Herta will take.
8. David Malukas took advantage of the late caution and drove up to eighth, but he was around the top ten all race. Even without the caution, Malukas would have been a top ten finisher, but this gave him a few more positions. This was a good rebound. Malukas has found good form on ovals. Dale Coyne Racing has struggled this year, but the team had something this weekend. Will this carry over to Nashville? Let's just hope they have a nice weekend in the Music City.
9. This was a rough result for Marcus Ericsson because he was the best Chip Ganassi Racing driver today and he ended dup ninth, the third best Ganassi finisher. Ericsson and Dixon had just been lapped when the Hunter-Reay caution came out, and Palou found more in the closing laps. Then Ericsson lost a few spots in the closing laps. This was not a great representation for Ericsson's pace.
10. Patricio O'Ward was defeated after this one. O'Ward couldn't keep up with the Penske cars and he went the wrong direction while his teammate Rosenqvist went forward. O'Ward was exasperated after this race. We have heard many fiery responses after tough days for O'Ward. I think this put him beyond anger today. He was out of it. He gave it all and finished tenth. That was it. All that hard work for a deflating result.
11. Kyle Kirkwood and Romain Grosjean were 11th and 12th today. Kirkwood looked like he should have finished in the top ten today. Grosjean was a mid-pack car all race. The disappointing thing is this wasn't an off-day for Andretti Autosport. This is its normal level at the moment, one top ten finisher and struggling to get the rest in the mix. Oof. This team once won six consecutive Iowa races and seven Iowa races in nine years. Andretti is no longer at that level.
12. Oh, Christian Lundgaard finished 13th and Lundgaard was the final car one lap down. It was better than yesterday for the Dane, but still not fantastic. The day was a step back for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. This is a big weekend for the team with its HyVee sponsorship. The team at least entered this weekend at the most recent winners and could ride that buzz, but performing this poorly at this weekend is embarrassing to the team. They know and they want to be better.
13. Let's breeze through the rest of the field, starting with the cars that finished two laps down...
Both cautions caught out Callum Ilott, but he looked strong and 14th was a worthy result. Ilott still finished ahead of two RLLR cars, both Meyer Shank Racing cars and both Ed Carpenter Racing cars.
Alexander Rossi couldn't quite make the top ten today. Rossi had high hopes this weekend, and it didn't work out. Fifteenth was a little worse than he had run all race, but he wasn't going to be much better than 12th.
The Meyer Shank Racing cars were 16th (Hélio Castroneves) and 17th (Conor Daly). Yeah, that is about as good as it can get for this group at the present moment.
Ed Carpenter Racing was 18th (Rinus VeeKay), 23rd (Ed Carpenter) and 24th (Ryan Hunter-Reay). This team was never in it, and Hunter-Reay's brush with the wall really didn't cost him much. He was 20th when it happened, but this team was not competitive at all this weekend.
14. Jack Harvey was 19th, a spot ahead of Graham Rahal. Rahal probably sees this as a missed opportunity. He started sixth today and just went backward, one day after the team was competitive and in a position for a top ten. The team did have to make repairs after yesterday's incident, but it wasn't a complete rebuild. One step forward, two steps back for RLLR after Iowa last week.
15. Devlin DeFrancesco was 21st and didn't do a thing. A.J. Foyt Racing confirmed Indianapolis was an aberration. Santino Ferrucci was the only car five laps down in 22nd and the team parked Benjamin Pedersen, which was for the best of everyone.
16. Takuma Sato and Agustín Canapino both brushed the wall during this race and both drivers ended up finishing multiple laps down. Canapino had another good start. If he didn't rub the wall, I think he would have been right up there with Ilott in the top fifteen.
17. Sting Ray Robb was disqualified after his team released him with a loose wheel nut and that was the correct call. The team knew it didn't get it on. How many times have we seen a Formula One team yell at a driver to stop the car and the driver immediately stops? Robb wasn't pitting at pit out. He had about 60% of the pit lane to stop in or pull to the side and not return to the track. That was poor across the board from this group. Disqualification was warranted, and the team should get more.
18. A couple things about this weekend: I loved it. I love doubleheader weekends. I think it is a cool event and we saw two great races.
Credit to the drivers because there were 28 cars in each race and there were only four cautions over the two races, of which one was for Robb's loose wheel and three were for guys brushing the barrier, a slight glance and not much more. We didn't see any drivers run over another despite the difference in speed on old tires and new. Nobody lost a car and backed into the wall and collected another two or three bystanders. The drivers had a great weekend.
I wish IndyCar could figure out how to run another two or three short track races. There is no other race like Iowa. I mentioned Richmond yesterday. If the tires fell off like this, Richmond could be tremendous. We were so close to seeing it in 2020. Milwaukee could be returning next year, but Milwaukee never raced like this. I think this is the kind of race we wished Phoenix could be. Again, IndyCar has a good thing going. The issue is how can it spread it around to more tracks and reach other parts of the country? It isn't as simple as just running races. That is how IndyCar and tracks lose money.
The Saturday race took one hour, 33 minutes and 40 seconds. The Sunday race took one hour, 40 minutes and 25 seconds. The Sunday race was shortened by 50 laps but today's race ended with about 20 minutes left in the race broadcast window with a dedicated 30-minute post-race show scheduled, 50 minutes of television time for IndyCar. I don't think there was any reason to shorten the Sunday race by 50 laps. I think this should be looked at for next year.
19. There were a lot of people angry about this weekend, and it is a shame. The unfortunate thing is there is a growing intolerance in people when things aren't exactly how they think it should be. They see Iowa having four concerts with tickets that cost over $100 and it isn't all about the racing as a bad thing and because they don't like it, the event should fail to prove their point, though they really get nothing out of it failing. Its failure in no way benefits this individual. It is rooting for others to fail out of pure spite.
That is foolish. We have spent years talking about how IndyCar needs bigger races and events and draw out more people. Iowa developed into that and yet many are upset because there are people buying tickets to see the music and that is viewed as the wrong reasons to attend what is an IndyCar race.
We should be happy that IndyCar can put on an event that draws people out, no matter why those people are attending. A race should be about engaging a community and for a period in time, Iowa was not drawing great crowds. The locals were not coming out. IndyCar did something different with help from HyVee and it is now a weekend full of people for two days.
There should not be a purity test to attend a race or get on the starting grid. People should be allowed to come out as they wish and they should all be welcome to come. Iowa never looked like this prior. There are suites all over the place. Very few IndyCar races, especially oval races look like this. This is a good thing for IndyCar.
It isn't a perfect weekend, but it is a great weekend. This is what it takes to have two Iowa races on the schedule at the present moment. Tracks are not lining up to host IndyCar. If this weekend didn't happen, there would be no track filling the gap in the schedule. We would likely see Texas and Detroit still be doubleheaders and everyone would get an extra summer weekend off if Iowa didn't exist as it does today.
I know ticket prices are high, but about 30,000 people attended both days, and if the average ticket sold for $200 that is a healthy amount of revenue. It is ok if you don't want to pay for those tickets. Someone else did. That is all that matters. If someone buys them, who cares who it is?
No other IndyCar race has that average ticket price, not even the Indianapolis 500. If the event is breaking even and all the partners are happy with the turnout, we should be happy as well, otherwise Iowa will no longer be on the schedule and there will be two fewer oval races to watch.
20. After this party, everyone gets a week off before heading to Nashville.
