As we saw last year, qualifying for both Iowa races will take place Saturday morning with the grid for the Hy-Vee Homefront 250 taking place at 9:30 a.m. Eastern. Each driver will make a two-lap qualifying run. The first qualifying lap will set a driver's starting position for Saturday's Hy-Vee Homefront 250. The second qualifying lap will determine a driver's grid position for Sunday's Hy-Vee One Step 250.
Josef Newgarden ran the fastest lap in Friday practice at 18.242 seconds or 176.428 mph. Newgarden is attempting to win four consecutive oval races. The last driver to win four consecutive oval races was Nigel Mansell at Milwaukee, Michigan, Loudon and Nazareth in 1993. Newgarden is the first driver to win three consecutive oval starts since 2000 when Juan Pablo Montoya won the Indianapolis 500 in the Indy Racing League and then won his next two oval starts in CART at Milwaukee and Michigan, and Newgarden is the first driver to win three consecutive oval starts in one series since Paul Tracy won at Nazareth, Rio de Janeiro and Gateway in 1997.
Scott McLaughlin was only 0.0477 seconds off his Team Penske teammate in practice. McLaughlin was in the top five in three of five oval races last season. McLaughlin was sixth and 14th in the first two oval races this season. The only time McLaughlin has been the top Team Penske finisher this season was his Barber Motorsports Park victory. Last season, the New Zealander was the top Penske finisher five times, including three times in the first ten races.
Marcus Ericsson ran 126 laps in practice, the most in the session, and Ericsson was third, 0.0572 seconds off Newgarden. Ericsson ended up 11th at Toronto after having to make a last lap pit stop for a splash of fuel. Ericsson has failed to finish in the top ten in the last two races. The Swede has not had three consecutive starts without a top ten result since an eight-start stretch that begin at Road America in 2019 and went through the 2020 Texas season opener.
Colton Herta was only 0.0943 seconds slower than Newgarden and Herta ranked fourth in practice. Though Herta has an average finish of 18.6 at Iowa, his average starting position is 9.8. Herta has finished in the top ten of the last two oval races. Herta had zero top ten finishes in five oval races last season, and the last time he had consecutive top ten finishes in oval races was a three-race run in 2020 from the Indianapolis 500 through both races of the Gateway doubleheader.
Patricio O'Ward was the fifth driver within a tenth of a second of Newgarden's top time. O'Ward was 0.0996 seconds back. O'Ward could become the third driver to win consecutive Iowa races, joining Ryan Hunter-Reay, who did it in 2014 and 2015, and Josef Newgarden, who did it over the second race in 2020 and the first race in 2022. After opening the season with an average finish of 5.4 through the first five races with a median of second, O'Ward's average finish has been 13.6 over the last five events with a median of eighth.
In his third appearance of the season, Takuma Sato was sixth in practice, the top Chip Ganassi Racing car, 0.1186 seconds off. Sato was seventh in the Indianapolis 500 in May, Sato's most recent start. He has not had consecutive top ten finishes since he was ninth in the 2022 Long Beach season finale and tenth in the 2023 St. Petersburg season opener.
Last week's winner Christian Lundgaard settled into seventh in practice, 0.2159 seconds behind Newgarden. Lundgaard is looking to become the first driver to have his first two victories occur in consecutive races A.J. Allmendinger had this first three victories occur successively in 2006. Eighteen drivers in IndyCar history has had their first two victories come in consecutive races. The last time one of those streaks included an oval was Sébastien Bourdais in 2003, who had his first career victory at Brands Hatch and then had his second career victory at the Lausitzring.
Ryan Hunter-Reay had his best practice session with Ed Carpenter Racing, as Hunter-Reay ended up eighth. The three-time Iowa winner was 0.2329 seconds behind the four-time Iowa winner leading the way. Hunter-Reay has started in the top ten in three of his last four Iowa starts. However, Hunter-Reay has finished worse than his starting position in four consecutive Iowa races and in five of his last six.
Conor Daly was a little over a quarter of a second slower than Newgarden's fastest lap, but it placed Daly in eighth. In the Iowa doubleheader last year, neither Meyer Shank Racing entry started better than 16th. Daly has not had a top ten finish outside the state of Indiana since he finished eighth in the second race of the 2020 Gateway doubleheader. He has not had a top five finish outside of Indiana since he was fifth at Gateway in 2017.
Scott Dixon rounded out the top ten, 0.2606 seconds behind Newgarden. Dixon is looking for his fifth consecutive top five finishes. Dixon has not had five consecutive top five results since finishing third in the 2020 St. Petersburg season finale through a fourth place finish in the second race of the 2021 Texas season opener. He has five consecutive top five finishes at Iowa, but no victories. Dixon is tied with Mario Andretti for most tracks with a victory at 26.
Jack Harvey had the 11th fastest lap in practice, 0.2867 seconds off the top. Two of Harvey's five top ten oval finishes were his pair of sevenths in the 2020 Iowa doubleheader. He was also ninth in the 2020 Indianapolis 500, which followed that Iowa doubleheader. His average career finish in 19 starts is 16.052. He has finished 18th in the first two oval races this season.
At 0.3315 seconds slower than his teammate Newgarden, Will Power was slotted into 12th in practice. Power has never won at Iowa Speedway in 15 starts. It is the only track where Power has five starts or more and has not won at. The only other circuit where he has at least four starts and no victories is Kentucky. Power has started in the top ten in 14 consecutive Iowa races with his worst starting position being 11th. He has started on one of the firs two rows in seven consecutive Iowa races.
A week after having his best start of the season in 13th, Hélio Castroneves was 13th in practice. Castroneves has finished outside the top ten in four of his last five Iowa starts. Castroneves has been running at the finish of all 13 Iowa starts. He has finished off the lead lap here on six occasions.
Alexander Rossi was only 0.0011 seconds slower than Castroneves in practice, putting Rossi 14th in practice. Rossi has not had a top five finish on a short oval since he was second in the 2018 Gateway race. Rossi has not had a podium finish on an oval since he was runner-up at Texas in 2019.
Ed Carpenter was 16th in practice, 0.0032 seconds behind IndyCar championship leader Palou. has not had a top ten finish in his last eight starts, his longest top ten drought since a ten-start stretch that began with the 2010 Homestead season finale and went through nine starts during the 2011 season.
Romain Grosjean was 17th in practice. Grosjean has finished worse than his starting position in seven of ten races this season. In two of the three races where Grosjean finished better than his starting position, he started and finished outside the top ten. He has retired due to an accident in three of the last five races.
Car #18 was 18th in practice with David Malukas' fastest lap being 0.4295 seconds slower than Newgarden. Malukas has completed 944 laps this season, the fourth fewest among drivers who have started all ten races this season. Only Benjamin Pedersen (926), Devlin DeFrancesco (925) and Sting Ray Robb (827) have completed fewer. Malukas has completed 38 fewer laps than Conor Daly, who has missed two races this season.
Devlin DeFrancesco settled into 19th for practice. DeFrancesco will be making his 28th start Saturday at Iowa and he is still looking for his first career top ten finish. The only driver to have his first career top ten finish occur at Iowa was Mike Conway, who finished eight in the 2009 Iowa race. It was Conway's seventh career start. DeFrancesco had his first career top fifteen finish occur last year at Iowa when the Canadian was 15th in the second race.
Graham Rahal was the slowest Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing entry in 20th. Rahal has finished in the top ten in the 11th race of the season in six consecutive seasons, three of which have been top five results. Each of those top five finishes occurred at a different track (Iowa, Mid-Ohio and Nashville). Rahal does not have a top five finish in his last nine oval starts.
The last car within a half-second of Newgarden's best time in practice was the #21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet for Rinus VeeKay. VeeKay was 0.4926 seconds back. The Dutchman was fourth in last year's Iowa race, his most recent top five finish. Prior to this 16-race top five finish drought, VeeKay's longest slump was ten races. Fourth is VeeKay's best finish on an oval.
Kyle Kirkwood ran only 72 laps in practice, the fewest in the session, and Kirkwood was 22nd. Kirkwood has not finished in the top ten on an oval in his IndyCar career, and Kirkwood has finished outside the top twenty in four of seven oval starts. His best oval finish was 17th last year in the Indianapolis 500 and at Gateway.
Callum Ilott ended up 23rd in the session. Ilott has finished in the top 12 in four of the last five oval races. Ilott completed all 200 miles at Indianapolis in May and went from 27th to 12th. He gained at least ten spots in both Iowa races last season. Ilott's 17th starting position at Texas earlier this season is his best oval starting position in seven appearances.
Agustín Canapino shadowed his Juncos Hollinger Racing teammate Ilott on the speed chart, but Canapino was our a tenth of a second slower in 24th. Canapino enters Iowa trailing Marcus Armstrong by 43 points in the championship for the top rookie. Armstrong is not competing this weekend and he will not be at Gateway next month. Canapino is averaging 11.3 points per race this season. In oval races, he is averaging 11.5 points.
Santino Ferrucci was 25th, 0.7813 seconds slower than Newgarden. A.J. Foyt Racing has one top five finish and three top ten finishes at Iowa. The team's only top five was fifth in the inaugural Iowa race in 2007 with Darren Manning. Its only other top ten finishes were seventh with Vitor Meira in 2010 and tenth with Tony Kanaan in 2019.
Felix Rosenqvist took 26th in practice, 0.8554 seconds off Newgarden. Rosenqvist's average finish in oval races is 16.4545 in 22 starts. The Swede has finished outside the top fifteen in 11 oval starts and outside the top twenty in seven oval starts. He has finished outside the top twenty in three of his last five oval starts.
Sting Ray Robb was 0.9027 seconds off Newgarden. Robb retired from the first two oval races this season. After retiring from five of the first six races this season, Robb has taken the checkered flag in four consecutive races.
Benjamin Pedersen was the slowest car in practice, the only one more than a second off the fastest lap. Pedersen was 1.0737 seconds back Pedersen was 27th at Toronto last week. Each time Pedersen has finished 27th this season, he has failed to complete a lap. He was ninth in the Indy Lights race at Iowa last year, completing all 75 laps.
NBC's coverage of the Hy-Vee Homefront 250 begins at 3:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 3:00 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 250 laps.
