Morning Warm-Up: Iowa 2020 Race Two

Simon Pagenaud looks to make history again in Iowa

Josef Newgarden picked up his third pole position of 2020 with a lap at 175.333 MPH during Friday's qualifying session. It is Newgarden's first pole position at Iowa and it is the fifth time in the last six Iowa races he has started in the first two rows. The pole-sitter has never won at Iowa and an Iowa pole-sitter has never finished on the podium with the best finish being fourth. Newgarden has won from pole position twice from his previous ten pole positions, with his most recent being at Road America in 2018. The other time he won from pole position was Barber in 2018. Newgarden has had multiple podium finishes in the first six races every season since 2016. His only podium finish in 2020 was third at Texas. He was fifth last night and he has not had consecutive top five finishes since he was first, third, fourth and first at Texas, Road America, Toronto and Iowa last year. He has led a lap in six consecutive Iowa races.

Will Power extended his top ten starting streak at Iowa to 12 consecutive races after ending up on the front row for race two. Power ended up 0.0324 seconds slower than his Team Penske teammate. It is the first time Penske has swept the front row this season. Power suffered an accident in race one and it is the fourth time in five races he has not finished in the top ten. This matches his worst start since 2013.

After starting on pole position for race one, Conor Daly will start on the inside of row two for race two. Prior to this weekend, Daly's best starting position at Iowa was 16th. He had never started in the top five in his IndyCar career prior to this weekend. Daly ended up finishing eighth in race one. Prior to last night, Daly had only finished in the top ten after starting in the top ten once. That was going from tenth to sixth in the second Belle Isle race in 2015. Daly picked up fastest lap last night.

Ryan Hunter-Reay will start fourth for the second Iowa race and it is only the second time Hunter-Reay has started in the top five at Iowa. Last night was the fourth time in five Iowa races he has finished outside the top fifteen. He had three victories, four podium finishes and seven top ten finishes from his first eight Iowa starts. He has two podium finishes in his last 22 starts and he has not had a podium finish on an oval since he was third at Iowa in 2017.

Colton Herta rounds out the top five on the gird for race one and this comes after his first retirement of 2020 after running over Rinus VeeKay. Herta has started in the top five in 12 of his 24 IndyCar starts. In his first 11 top five starts, he has finished in the top five only five times. Herta has yet to finish in the top five on an oval and he has finished outside the top fifteen in five of seven oval starts.

Jack Harvey will start in the top ten for his fifth consecutive races after setting his best oval start in both Iowa races. Harvey's best oval starting position before ending up sixth for the second Iowa race was 21st at the Texas season opener. He is coming off his first top ten finish of 2020 and his first top ten finish an oval after finishing seventh last night.

Álex Palou made an 11-position jump from 18th on the grid in race one to seventh for race two. The only time seventh starting position produced a winner at Iowa was in 2012 with Ryan Hunter-Reay. Palou's 11-position jump comes after finishing 11th in race one. Joining Palou on row four is another driver that made an 11-position leap from his race one starting position and that is Tony Kanaan. Kanaan matched his career worst starting position at Iowa in race one, ending up 19th. This will be the fourth time he has started on row four at Iowa. In the three previous times, he started seventh and finished worse than his starting position each time.

Marcus Ericsson was the top Ganassi qualifier for the first time in his brief career with the team after ending up ninth for race two, exactly where he finished in race one. It was Ericsson's fourth consecutive top ten finish and only his second top ten finish on an oval. Felix Rosenqvist makes it an all-Swedish row five. Rosenqvist has started in the top ten in every race this season but his Road America victory is his only top ten finish.

Charlie Kimball starts 11th for race two. Despite being Kimball's best starting position of 2020, it is the first time Kimball has not been the top Foyt qualifier this season. Patricio O'Ward ended up 12th, a position ahead of Arrow McLaren SP teammate Oliver Askew. O'Ward's second consecutive top five finish has him up to third in the championship, 70 points behind Scott Dixon. Askew's third place finish last night was the first consecutive race a driver has picked up a maiden podium finish after Palou was third in the first Road America race and O'Ward was second Road America race. Last night was Arrow McLaren SP's first double top five finish since Toronto 2018.

Ed Carpenter will start 14th. Carpenter has started outside the top ten in his last seven starts and in 11 of his last 14 starts. He has not had consecutive top ten starts since 2016. Rinus VeeKay ended up 15th on the grid for the second time in the last three races. Before last night's race Ed Carpenter Racing had at least one top ten finisher in every Iowa race it entered, and it had a top five finisher in seven consecutive Iowa races. Santino Ferrucci rounds out row eight. Ferrucci has started outside the top ten in seven of eight oval starts in his career. Ferrucci is ninth in the championship, 109 points behind Dixon, one behind Rosenqvist and three ahead of Power.

Marco Andretti starts 17th in race two. This is Andretti's best starting position at Iowa in his last six races. He did win from 17th on the grid at Iowa in 2011. It is the worst starting position for an Iowa winner. Last night, Andretti ended up 22nd after a clutch failure early in the race. It was the third time he has finished 22nd this season.

Scott Dixon had started in the top ten for 11 consecutive races prior to this weekend. That was snapped yesterday when Dixon ended up 17th on the grid and for race two he will start 18th. Dixon has won four races from outside the top ten, the most recent was from 22nd at Mid-Ohio in 2014. Last night was the 11th time he has finished on the podium after starting outside the top ten. Seven of 11 of those finishes were from outside the top fifteen on the grid. He has four podium finishes from his first five races, his best start since 2008, when he opened with six podium finishes from his first seven races.

Graham Rahal and Takuma Sato swept row ten for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Rahal has qualified ahead of Sato in five of six races. Rahal started the first four races in the top ten, but he qualified 21st and 19th at Iowa. Rahal was 12th in race one. He has never finished outside the top ten in consecutive Iowa races. Sato picked up his best starting position of 2020 in race one, starting sixth and he picked up his fourth consecutive top ten finish. The only time Sato has had four consecutive top ten finish was 2017 when he won Indianapolis, was eighth and fourth at Belle Isle and tenth at Texas.

Alexander Rossi and Zach Veach swept row 11 for Andretti Autosport. Rossi's second lap in qualifying saw him have a moment in the final corner and caused him to lift, dropping him to 21st on the grid for race two. It is Rossi's worst Iowa starting position and it is only the second time he has started outside the top twenty in his IndyCar career. The other time was the 2018 Indianapolis 500, where he started 32nd. Rossi is still looking for his first top five finish at Iowa after dropping to sixth in the close laps. Veach starts 22nd for the second consecutive race. This is Veach's worst starting position at Iowa. He has started outside the top fifteen in ten of the last 12 races.

Fuel pressure issues kept Simon Pagenaud from making a qualifying attempt yesterday and he will start dead last on the grid for the second time in as many days. Pagenaud went from last to first last night and it was the first time he has won a race from a starting position outside the top ten. His victory was the 19th time in IndyCar history a winner has started outside the top ten. The only driver with multiple victories from outside the top ten is Scott Dixon. After starting 22nd for race two at Road America, Pagenaud has started outside the top twenty for three consecutive races, the worst stretch of his career. The only time he had started outside the top twenty in consecutive prior to this weekend was in 2013 when he started 23rd at São Paulo and 21st at Indianapolis.

NBCSN's coverage of the second Iowa 250 begins at 8:30 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 8:45 p.m. ET. The race will be 250 laps.

First Impressions: Iowa 2020 Race One

1. Incredible. That is the only word that comes to mind with Simon Pagenaud's victory from last to first at Iowa. Fuel pressure issues kept Pagenaud from qualifying, dropping him to last in the grid for both races because of the qualifying format for this weekend. Despite the setback, Pagenaud nailed the strategy thanks to Ben Bretzman.

Pagenaud stopped early and got fresh rubber. This allowed him to move into the top ten and then he went longer on his second stint. After doing around 50 laps, his second stint went nearly 80 laps and the caution for Will Power's accident allowed Pagenaud to take his second stop under yellow.

Timing was in Pagenaud's favor, stopping with 103 laps to go. It was outside the 90-lap limit for the fuel cell, but perhaps some conservative driving would get him to the end. One waved off caution and a domino effect accident directly behind Pagenaud erased any need to save fuel. Colton Herta got into the back of Rinus VeeKay and instead of going green with just under 100 laps to go, another 20 laps were run under caution.

This allowed Simon Pagenaud to make it. He ran a conservative pace for the sake of the tires, and no one could really put up a challenge down the stretch. Scott Dixon tried, but with 100 laps on a set of tires Dixon would get one good shot. It didn't stick, and Pagenaud could open his gap a second time, taking him to the finish line with some comfort.

All the pieces fell into place, but Pagenaud and Bretzmen deserve credit. They mastered it again from behind. They did it in iRacing, they did it in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and it led to victory at Iowa. Pagenaud is starting last again tomorrow. He has done it once and he could do it again.

2. Scott Dixon is in the same point as Pagenaud. Everything lined up for him. Pagenaud had a better car and moved forward easier than Dixon. Maybe Dixon gets a top ten finish without the cautions, but this was 's greatest night and he ended up second. When you're hot, you're hot.

3. Bravo to Oliver Askew. Askew, and a handful of other drivers were caught out with both cautions. When the Power accident occurred, Askew, Patricio O'Ward, Alexander Rossi, Conor Daly and Marcus Ericsson were all on the wrong side of the Power accident. They had all stopped about 30 laps before. It made no sense to stop under it and then the Herta/VeeKay incident occurred. Rossi and Daly stopped. Askew, O'Ward and Ericsson didn't.

The race went green with just over 80 laps to go and the McLaren drivers and Ericsson drove into the window before making their final stops. Tires were key tonight. Askew had a clean stop, drove back to the lead lap and got up to third. That is ballsy. Josef Newgarden did something similar at Milwaukee in 2014. Askew was tremendous, even if the strategy didn't lead to victory. I am not sure where he could have found another 7.2 seconds over the final 58 laps.

4. Patricio O'Ward had a slow stop cost him. O'Ward was ahead of Askew before the final round of pit stops but one problem dropped him down the order. O'Ward was still able to match Askew's drive to the front, but it could have been two consecutive podiums for O'Ward.

5. This could have been a disaster for Josef Newgarden. Newgarden stopped about ten laps before the Power caution and didn't stop again. He went about 115 laps on his final stint. He saved a ridiculous amount of fuel to make it and he got a top five out of it! He was trapped a lap down for much of this race. For the first 40% of this race, it felt like another Newgarden beatdown in the making. For the next 40% it looked like Newgarden was going to cough up points. For the final 20%, Newgarden pulled out something better than expected.

6. Alexander Rossi didn't have the tires down the stretch. He stopped with 82 laps to go, before going green. He should have made it and finished on the podium, if not challenged Pagenaud for the victory. The tires weren't there and he lost spots to the McLaren drivers and Newgarden, who had no business passing Rossi after stopping about 30 laps before Rossi. It is good considering how Rossi's season started, but it could have been better. The bad news is Rossi is starting at the back tomorrow and will have a lot more work to do.

7. Jack Harvey was marvelous in seventh. Harvey needed a good oval race. A lot of people dragged him through the mud because of his struggles at Texas. Harvey found something in qualifying and drove smart today. He was not battling for the lead, but he was in the top ten for almost all of this race. Like Rossi, he lost a lot of time late on old tires, but Harvey will take seventh.

8. Conor Daly took a surprise pole position for Carlin and finished eighth, which is a tad disappointing, but still encouraging. He got caught out on strategy, made the same call as Rossi, but tires. This is good. Carlin needs good results and eighth is great! Daly has three consecutive top ten finishes with this team. These are great strides in an unusual year. Carlin was supposed to be a two-car operation, but the pandemic has kept that second car sidelined. In a strange way, that has been a blessing in disguise.

9. Another good day for Marcus Ericsson. Ericsson and Chip Ganassi Racing is proving to be a wonderful partnership. There is still some work to do, but this has been better than I bet a lot of people had penciled down for Ericsson back in February.

10. I can kind of explain how Takuma Sato finished in the top ten today. Sato stopped first. That led to Sato leading because he ran about 20 laps on fresher tires before everyone else stopped. On the second stint, Sato was strong and did over 80 laps without conceding a lot of time. His second stop was a little long and the cautions canceled out his strategy leading to a victory, but a top ten was still alive and Sato pulled it out.

11. Quickly through the rest of the field: Álex Palou drove smart and finished 11th and he deserved it. Graham Rahal started at the back and had a lot of work to do and pulled out 12th. Santino Ferrucci looked good at the start of stints, but his tires fell off quickly and it cost him on every stint, leaving him in 13th. Felix Rosenqvist tried to make this a two-stop race with stops just after lap 80 and 160, but he lost too much time and ultimately the cautions buried him in 14th. Ed Carpenter was 15th, that is all. Ryan Hunter-Reay started well but could not tune the setup and apparently lost 12 seconds on the out lap after his first stop. From there, Hunter-Reay could not make up any time. A.J. Foyt Racing had another long night. Charlie Kimball was five laps down and I have no clue what went wrong. Tony Kanaan brushed the wall early and forced an early stop to repair rear suspension.

12. We got two incidents to cover: Will Power had made his second stop and, a few laps later, Power lost his left front tire. He slammed the turn four way and it was night over for him. This is a big blow for Power. He is in a deep hole after this one.

13. The second incident was Colton Herta getting into the back of Rinus VeeKay. IndyCar waved off the restart late and Herta was already going. I am going to pin this on IndyCar a little bit. IndyCar called it with the leaders in turn four. I think that was the point of no return. You just have to go green. I don't know what kept the race from restarting then but this kept it from restarting for another 20 laps or so and cost Andretti Autosport and Ed Carpenter Racing a good chunk of change. I hope it was worth it.

14. Marco Andretti lost a clutch and Zach Veach keeps dropping. Both these guys need a good day.

15. I like that IndyCar did something different for this doubleheader weekend. We are used to doubleheaders on road and street courses. The road/street course format is set, it can be plugged to any weekend and work, but ovals are different. I am glad we didn't have two oval days and two oval qualifying session. I thought the one session, one lap for each race format worked. Each lap mattered and carried individual weight. If you screwed up lap one, you could still end up on the front row in the second race because the second lap only mattered for one race.

It set up an interesting strategy in qualifying because you had to get the most out of both laps, but you couldn't be too conservative and focus too much on consistency. The two grids are mixed up. They don't mirror each other. You have a few guys that are up one or down two, but a few drivers had double-figure swings between laps. Some were conservative on lap one and gained on lap two. It was enjoyable to watch. It did require a little mental balancing to know the second lap didn't matter for tonight and it allows for some confusion when first lap was good enough for sixth, but the second lap was ninth best. It is minor but I know what people will complain about.

The one downside to the process is Simon Pagenaud had fuel pressure issues and since Pagenaud could not make a qualifying run he has to start last for each race. One error hurts his starting position for both races. Zach Veach had a bobble on his first lap and it cost him time at the start of his second lap. That is the one downside to this format. When this doubleheader was announced I was open to an inversion for race two. NASCAR had done it a few times and it had worked. I think IndyCar could do the same with the top ten or top 12.

We don't know when the next oval doubleheader will be. This was IndyCar's first since 2011. Before that, an oval had not hosted a doubleheader since 1981. I wouldn't mind if Iowa was a doubleheader again next year. I am not sure it would happen if we can get 16 race weekends, but if it does return, this qualifying format would be fine, although I think we would like to try an inversion.

16. I was surprised at the pace of this race. I know the tires drop off at Iowa, but this was more significant than last year. Everyone knows where they have to improve for tomorrow. It will be interesting to see who gets the adjustments right and who still cannot tweak the setup accordingly. Get a good night's rest folks. We will see you tomorrow night.

Morning Warm-Up: Iowa 2020 Race One

IndyCar's first night race of 2020 takes place tonight at Iowa

Scott Dixon sits on 49 career victories entering Iowa, a track he has never won at. With 13 appearances at the 7/8th-mile oval, the only track Dixon has more experience at without a victory is St. Petersburg, where Dixon has started 15 races. He did score his first career victory on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course two weeks ago. He has won at 24 different circuits, tied for second all-time with Dario Franchitti. Mario Andretti holds the all-time record at 26 different circuits with a victory. Dixon has been running at the finish of all 13 Iowa races with seven top five finishes and ten top ten finishes.

Colton Herta heads into Iowa on the back of seven consecutive finishes, a career-high for the second-generation driver. Prior to this Herta's most consecutive finishes was three, the first three races of his career and he had retired from seven of his previous 12 starts. Herta finds himself second in the championship, matching his career best championship position, which came after his victory at Austin last year. He has been in the top five of the championship for the last three races after spending only two races in the top five all of last season.

Simon Pagenaud was outside the top ten in both Road America races and he dropped to fourth in the championship. Pagenaud has not had three consecutive finishes outside the top ten since 2015 at the second Belle Isle race, Texas and Toronto. This is the 11th time in his career he has had consecutive finishes outside the top ten. He ended five of those previous ten slumps with top five finishes, but he has never ended one of those streaks with a victory.

Patricio O'Ward scored his first podium finish at Road America, crossing the finish in second after a stellar race saw him lead 43 laps from pole position only to lose the lead with a lap and a half to go. O'Ward could become the first driver to pick up a first career victory after finishing runner-up in the race before since Robert Doornbos finished second at Cleveland and followed it up with a victory at Mont-Tremblant. The last driver to finish in the top five in the start before a first career victory was Graham Rahal, who was fourth in the 2007 Champ Car finale at Mexico City before winning his first start of 2008 at St. Petersburg.

Josef Newgarden looks to match Ryan Hunter-Reay's record for Iowa victories and Newgarden could possibly take the record for his own this weekend. If Newgarden swept the weekend he would become the first driver to win three consecutive Iowa races and he would be the first driver to win three consecutive races at a track since Will Power won the first three São Paulo races from 2010 to 2012.

Marcus Ericsson is on the best run of form in his IndyCar career. With three consecutive top ten finishes, Ericsson has jumped to sixth in the championship, another best for him. His only top ten finish on an oval last year was seventh at Texas. His next finish oval finish was 11th at Iowa.

Will Power was a race winner the last time IndyCar ran a doubleheader on an oval. Power won the second race of the Twin 275s at Texas Motor Speedway on June 11, 2011. He started third in both races and he finished third in the first race. Power is one of nine drivers entered for Iowa who competed in the Twin 275s. The other drivers are Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Takuma Sato, Ed Carpenter, Charlie Kimball and Graham Rahal.

Felix Rosenqvist looks to continue the streak rolling and pick up career victory number two in as many races. A.J. Allmendinger was the last driver to pick up his two victories in consecutive races. Allmendinger's first three victories came on the bounce at Portland, Cleveland and Toronto in 2006. Rosenqvist's only consecutive top five finishes was in the final two races of 2019 with second in Portland and fifth at Laguna Seca.

Graham Rahal has picked up a top ten finish in the fifth race of the season the last five years, but Rahal's finishing position had declined each year. It started with a runner-up result in the 2014 Grand Prix of Indianapolis. He followed it with finishes of fourth, sixth, ninth and ninth and all those results were in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis.

Dale Coyne Racing has picked up a best finish for the team at Road America when Álex Palou finished third in race one. Santino Ferrucci matched DCR's previous best Road America finish in each race with sixth place finishes. Last year, Coyne got its best Iowa finish when Sébastien Bourdais finished ninth. Before that, DCR's only top ten finish at the track was with Justin Wilson finishing tenth in 2012.

Ryan Hunter-Reay is outside the top ten in the championship for the first time since his engine failure in the 2019 season opener at St. Petersburg. He had been in the top ten of the championship after 38 of the previous 39 races before being eliminated in turn one at Road America. It was the third time Hunter-Reay failed to complete a lap in his career. The other two times were 2009 at Watkins Glen and 2011 at Milwaukee.

Zach Veach was seventh at Iowa last year, his best finish of the 2019 season. The only track where Veach has multiple top ten finishes is Belle Isle, where he finished eighth in both races last year. He has finished outside the top ten in his last three races and in each of his first two IndyCar seasons he has had at least one stretch with five finishes outside the top ten.

Rinus VeeKay makes his first appearance at Iowa since 2017 in U.S. F2000. That was VeeKay's first oval race. In his Road to Indy career, he made five oval starts, finished on the podium in four of them and his worst result was fourth.

Similar to VeeKay, Oliver Askew made five oval starts in the Road to Indy with his first coming in U.S. F2000 at Iowa three years ago. Askew won that race and he won both his oval starts last year in Indy Lights. His other two finishes were sixth and fifth in the 2018 Pro Mazda season.

Charlie Kimball has finished tenth twice at Iowa, both coming when Kimball has started in the top ten, his only top ten starts. His next best starting position is 14th. He has only one lead lap finish at this track. That came in 2014.

Another driver with only one lead lap finish at Iowa is Takuma Sato. Sato completed all 300 laps in 2018 when he finished third. That is his only top ten finish at the track despite starting in the top ten in half his starts. He has retired from six starts.

Conor Daly has an average finish of 17.7 in three starts at Iowa. The only tracks where Daly's average finish is worse are Road America, Barber, Portland, Laguna Seca and Indianapolis. He has finished on the lead lap in his last three oval starts after having only three lead lap finishes in his previous 17 oval starts.

Alexander Rossi matched his career best Iowa finish last year when he finished sixth from sixth on the grid and it was Rossi's first lead lap finish on the track. He has only led four laps in his career at Iowa, all coming in his first start in 2016. Iowa is the only track Rossi has multiple starts at and does not have a top five finish.

Jack Harvey's only time at Iowa was in 2015 in Indy Lights. Harvey qualified third behind the Carlin drivers of Max Chilton and Ed Jones. Chilton and Jones were the top two finishers with R.C. Enerson in third and Kyle Kaiser in fourth. Harvey dropped to fifth. This is the first short oval in Harvey's IndyCar career.

Tonight's race is the first IndyCar race on a Friday since the 1969 Indianapolis 500 when Mario Andretti scored his one and only Indianapolis 500 victory. Marco Andretti enters having not won in his last 147 starts with Andretti's most recent victory coming at Iowa over nine years ago. He has not had a top ten finish in his last four Iowa starts. This is the first time Andretti has started a season without a top ten finish in one of the first four races.

Ed Carpenter and Tony Kanaan are back for their second starts of 2020. Both drivers scored a top ten result in the Texas season opener. Carpenter has finished in the top five in his last two starts. It is the first time he has ever had consecutive top five finishes in his career. In 12 Iowa starts, he has only two top five finishes and he has finished outside the top ten in three of his last four appearances at the track. Kanaan has eight top ten finishes in his last ten Iowa starts. He enters this weekend with top ten finishes in his last four oval starts.

IndyCar will practice at 2:00 p.m. ET with qualifying scheduled for 5:30 p.m. ET. The first lap of qualifying for each car will set the grid for tonight's race. The second lap will set the field for tomorrow night's race.

NBCSN's coverage of the first Iowa 250 begins at 8:30 p.m. ET with the green flag scheduled for 9:15 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 250 laps.

Track Walk: Iowa 2020

Iowa hosts IndyCar for a pair of nights

The fifth and sixth rounds of the 2020 NTT IndyCar Series season will be run at Iowa Speedway, as the 7/8-mile oval hosts its first doubleheader weekend. Both races will be 250 laps and take place on Friday and Saturday night. The first seven Iowa races were 250 laps before increasing to 300 laps in 2014. This is the first oval to host a doubleheader since the Twin 275 at Texas in 2011. Iowa will be the smallest oval to host an IndyCar doubleheader since the 1947 season. Four previous Iowa winners are entered for this weekend.

Coverage
Time: On Friday July 17, coverage begins at 9:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 9:15 p.m. ET. On Saturday July 18, coverage begins at 8:30 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 8:45 p.m. ET.
Channel: NBCSN
Announcers: Leigh Diffey, James Hinchcliffe and Paul Tracy will be in the booth. Kelli Stavast and Dillon Welch will work pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule 
Friday:
Practice: 2:00 p.m. ET (90 minutes)*
Qualifying: 5:30 p.m. ET (NBCSN will have taped coverage at 7:30 p.m. ET)*
Race: 9:15 p.m. ET (250 laps)
Saturday:
Practice: 3:30 p.m. ET (60 minutes)*
Race: 8:45 p.m. ET (250 laps)

* - All practice and qualifying sessions are available live with the NBC Sports Gold IndyCar pass.

Who's Out?
With a reduced 14-race schedule, IndyCar surged beyond the quarter post of the 2020 season during the second Road America race. This is the first marker to gauge where drivers stand in the championship. Some are sitting pretty, others have some work to do but have time, another portion have to be near-perfect for the remaining ten races and the rest are out already.

Every champion since 1947 has had at least one top ten finish in the first four races of the season. Through the first four races of 2020, a surprisingly 21 drivers have at least one top ten finish. The only full-time drivers yet to finish in the top ten are Jack Harvey and Marco Andretti. Harvey has yet to finish in the top fifteen while Andretti's best finish was 14th in the season opener.

Only once since 1947 has the IndyCar champion not had a top five finish in the first four races of the season. That was Gil de Ferran in 2000, who's first top five finish was in the fifth race of the season. In that season, de Ferran had three top ten finishes from the first four races and won the fifth race.

Fifteen drivers have a top five finish. The six drivers with a top ten, but without a top five are Santino Ferrucci, Charlie Kimball, Takuma Sato, Conor Daly, Oliver Askew and Tony Kanaan. Kanaan is not running full-time. Ferrucci and Sato are the only ones of those drivers with multiple top ten finishes.

In the last 88 IndyCar seasons from AAA, USAC, CART, IRL and IndyCar, only five times has a champion not had a podium finish in the first four races. Most recently was in 2018 when Scott Dixon's first podium was in the fifth race. Jimmy Bryan is the only champion not to have a podium finish in the first five races. He won the sixth race of the 1956 season.

On all five occasions when the champion did not get a podium finish in the first four races, all five of those champions had three top ten finishes. Colton Herta, Marcus Ericsson, Ferrucci and Sato all have at least three top ten finishes without a podium finish.

Nine drivers have a podium finish in 2020. Sixty-one champions won one of the first four races, 70 had their first victory by the fifth race and 73 had a victory by the sixth race. In the 21st century, 23 of 28 champions won within the first five races, but since reunification a third of the champions took longer than five races to get their first victories, three of those championship took seven races or more.

This is also the season where Dixon has won the first three races and holds a 54-point lead over Herta in second. Felix Rosenqvist is the other race winner and he is eighth in the championship, 85 points back.

Many drivers have started strong, but with Dixon's dominance and no drivers close to that level, it feels like more drivers are out of it than paper would suggest. One hundred points cover the top 13 drivers. The only drivers outside the top 13 with top five finishes are Rinus VeeKay and Alexander Rossi, who is coming off a third-place finish at Road America.

I would say those 15 drivers are still alive but the likes of Ferrucci, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Álex Palou, VeeKay and Rossi are on thin ice and need a big swing in results quickly to stay alive.

Is This Newgarden's Big Weekend?
Iowa has taken on an additional race and that plays into the favor of defending champion Josef Newgarden.

No driver has taken to the 7/8-mile oval better than Newgarden. Of drivers with at least three Iowa starts, he has the best average finish at 6.2. He has two victories, four podium finishes and five top five finishes in his last six Iowa starts with his worst finish in that span being sixth.

In his last five starts, Newgarden has led 111 laps, 282 laps, one lap, 229 laps and 245 laps. He has led 57.866% of the 1,5000 laps run in the last five Iowa races. Newgarden's 868 laps led is led 224 more laps than the next highest driver, Hélio Castroneves.

With Newgarden down to fifth in the championship, 67 points behind Dixon, an Iowa doubleheader could see Newgarden vault right back into the title fight if not send him ahead of Dixon.

Dixon has been respectable at Iowa with seven top five finishes and ten top ten finishes in 13 starts. However, he has never won at the track and his runner-up finish to Newgarden last year was only his second podium finish at the venue. He has led only seven Iowa races for a total of 128 laps. In six of those races he led 21 laps or fewer.

While Dixon looks to prevent Newgarden from slashing his lead this weekend, Ryan Hunter-Reay will try and keep the title of most successful driver at Iowa. Hunter-Reay has three victories at the track, the most all-time, but he has finished outside the top fifteen in three of his last four visits to the Hawkeye State. Prior to this stretch, he had four consecutive podium finishes. Despite his success, Hunter-Reay has only led 54 laps at the track with 37 laps being the most he has led in a race and he has only led in the race he has won.

Penske's Bagel
Newgarden is the favorite this weekend and it comes with Team Penske sitting 0-for-4 in 2020.

This is the first time the team has not won one of the first four races since 2013, when the team's first victory did not come until the eighth race at Texas with Castroneves. Since 1979, only seven times has Team Penske not won in the first four races of a season (1986, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2008 and 2013). In three of those other six seasons, Penske went winless (1996, 1998, 1999) In the other three, Team's Penske first victory came in race number six (1986), five (2000) and six (2008) Of those seven seasons, the only Team Penske won the championship was 2000 with Gil de Ferran.

Team Penske has won two of the last three Iowa races after not winning in any of IndyCar's first ten visits to the track.

Simon Pagenaud has started on pole position twice, but he has never finished better than fourth and he has led only 15 laps. He has completed 2,298 out of a possible 2,300 laps in his eight starts. He enters this weekend with four consecutive top ten finishes at the track.

Will Power leads all drivers with four Iowa pole positions, he has started in the top ten of ten consecutive Iowa races and his worst starting position was 11th on debut. Of drivers with at least three starts, Power has the second-best average starting position at 4.6, only behind Castroneves' 4.1, but the Australian's average finish is 11.5 and he has only one podium finish, a second in 2016.

Last year, Power led 49 laps before Newgarden took charge and an improper pit lane entry forced Power to serve a penalty, knocking him out of scoring a respectable finish. Those 49 laps led is the most he has led in an Iowa race. He has led a total 129 laps, has led in five Iowa races, including three consecutive years.

The good news for Team Penske is the team has won the last four races held on weekdays. Power won rain-delayed Monday races at St. Petersburg, São Paulo and Pocono in 2010, 2013 and 2016 respectively. Newgarden won a Monday race at Barber in 2018.

Ganassi's Unbeaten Start
While Penske is 0-for-4, Chip Ganassi Racing is 4-for-4, leading the Honda charge.

Prior to 2020, Chip Ganassi Racing had won the season opener seven times. The team had never won multiple races to open a season.

Dixon's success has been covered, but Felix Rosenqvist scored his maiden victory last Sunday at Road America, his first victory in his 21st career start. It is the first time since 2014 Ganassi has had multiple race winners when Dixon and Tony Kanaan split three of the final four races.

While Dixon and Rosenqvist have combined for the four victories, Marcus Ericsson heads into Iowa with the most consecutive top ten finishes from the team. Ericsson has three consecutive top ten finishes. After finishing sixth at Indianapolis, he was tenth in the first Road America race and he was fourth in race two. This is Ericsson's best stretch in his short IndyCar career and his fourth-place finish was his second career top five finish.

Rosenqvist and Ericsson made their Iowa debuts last year, and the result were little to desire. Rosenqvist was 14th, one lap down and he clipped a spinning Sage Karam early in the race. Ericsson had a strong first trip to Iowa. He started tenth and was challenging for a top five finish before being penalized for an improper pit lane entry on his final stop. This dropped him to 11th, one lap down.

Ganassi has two Iowa victories, but it has not won since 2009.

Ericsson could do something that has never been done at Chip Ganassi Racing. Ganassi has never had three different drivers win a race in a single IndyCar season. Ericsson's first career victory could add a little more history for the team.

This is the first-time Ganassi has opened a season with four consecutive victories, but it is not the first time the team has won four consecutive races. In 2013, Dixon won three consecutive races at Pocono and the Toronto doubleheader and Charlie Kimball's first career victory followed at Mid-Ohio.

Ganassi's longest winning streak is six races, which happened in 1998. Alex Zanardi won at Gateway with Jimmy Vasser winning the next race at Milwaukee. Zanardi followed it up with four consecutive victories, taking the checkered flag at Belle Isle, Portland, Cleveland and Toronto.

Who is Next to Visit Victory Lane?
Including Ericsson, nine drivers entered for Iowa do not have an IndyCar victory. Two of the drivers were on the podium last weekend.

Patricio O'Ward was a lap and a half short of being the maiden winner on Sunday at Road America. O'Ward led 43 of 55 laps from pole position, only to not have the tire life down the stretch and he fell to the charging Rosenqvist.

It was O'Ward's first podium finish and it lifted him to fourth in the championship, 63 points behind Dixon. O'Ward has three consecutive top ten finishes after having only two top ten finishes from his first nine IndyCar starts. He has won at Iowa, having taken first place in the 2018 Indy Lights race at the track.

Álex Palou was third in the first Road America race and he followed it with a seventh-place finish in race two. With these results, Palou is top rookie in the championship, 12th on 79 points, 94 points off the championship lead.

This will be Palou's second oval event with his Texas debut ending prematurely after being collateral damage when Rinus VeeKay spun exiting turn two.

Santino Ferrucci rounds out the top ten in the championship with 87 points, just over half Dixon's total through four races. Ferrucci enters Iowa off the back of three consecutive top ten finishes, a career best for him. Last year, Ferrucci had a strong start at Iowa before finishing 12th. It was the only oval race in 2019 where he did not finish in the top ten.

Zach Veach has been sliding down the championship since the calendar flipped to July. With three consecutive finishes of 14th or worse, Veach is now 13th in the championship. Last year, Veach's best finish came at Iowa, a seventh from 20th on the grid.

Rinus VeeKay has finished 13th and 14th in the last two races after picking up a fifth-place finish at Indianapolis. VeeKay's only appearance at Iowa was in U.S. F2000 in 2017. He was runner-up to Oliver Askew. Askew has taken a dive in the last three races, having dropped from ninth to 19th in the championship.

Conor Daly will be back in the #59 Gallagher Chevrolet for Carlin this weekend. Daly has finished sixth in his last two races with Carlin. He was 13th in last year's Iowa race, his best result at the oval. That 13th place finish is Carlin's best Iowa finish.

Jack Harvey makes his first Iowa start since 2015 in Indy Lights. Harvey has not finished in the top fifteen yet in 2020, despite starting in the top ten in the last three races and on the front row twice. At Texas in June, he matched his career best oval finish of 16th.

With Rosenqvist off the back of his first career victory we could see first-time winners in consecutive races since 2008 when Graham Rahal won at St. Petersburg and Danica Patrick won at Motegi.

Qualifying Format
Another doubleheader and another qualifying format will be utilized this weekend.

There will be one qualifying session on Friday afternoon prior to race one. Each car will make two laps. The first qualifying lap will set the grid for race one while the second lap will set the grid for race two.

Iowa is notorious for never having winner from pole position. The pole-sitter has never finished on the podium at Iowa, let alone won the race. The best finish for the pole-sitter is fourth with Scott Dixon in 2008 and 2014, Simon Pagenaud in 2016 and Will Power in 2017. The pole-sitter has never led the most laps in an Iowa race and the average finish for a pole-sitter is 9.23. The most laps led for an Iowa pole-sitter is 50, which came in 2015 with Hélio Castroneves.

The front row produced a winner on two occasions, 2013 with James Hinchcliffe and 2016 with Josef Newgarden. Four times has the race winner started third, including last year with Newgarden. No position has produced more winners. Six of 13 races have been won from outside the top five and four of those winners have started outside the top ten.

Fast Facts
The Friday race will be the 13th IndyCar race held on July 17 and the first since Will Power won at Toronto in 2016.

The Saturday race will be the tenth IndyCar race held on July 18 and the first since Ryan Hunter-Reay won at Iowa in 2015.

This will be the final IndyCar weekend before Scott Dixon turns 40 years old on July 22.

The Iowa winner has gone on to win the championships four times (Dario Franchitti 2007, Franchitti 2009, Ryan Hunter-Reay 2012, Josef Newgarden 2019).

Iowa has never produced a first-time winner.

The Friday race will be the first IndyCar race to fall on a Friday since the 1969 Indianapolis 500, Mario Andretti's only Indianapolis 500 victory.

The driver that has led the most laps at Iowa has only won five of the 13 races (Franchitti 2007, Hinchcliffe 2013, Newgarden 2016, Castroneves 2017, Newgarden 2019).

The average starting position for an Iowa winner is 7.153 with a median of four.

An Iowa winner has never started on the third row.

The average number of lead changes in an Iowa race is 9.923 with a median of ten.

The most lead changes were 16 in 2010. The fewest lead changes were four in 2018.

The average number of cautions in an Iowa race is 4.769 with a median of five. The average number of caution laps is 51.923 with a median of 51.

The most cautions in an Iowa race is 2014 and the fewest is two in 2018. The most caution laps were 73 in 2015. The fewest caution laps were 17 in 2018.

Since engine competition returned to IndyCar, Chevrolet has won five of eight Iowa races.

Honda has opened the IndyCar season with four consecutive victories. That is the most victories for the manufacture to start the season sine engine competition returned to IndyCar.

This four-race winning streak for Honda matches its longest since the 2012 season. Honda won four consecutive races in 2013 (Pocono, Toronto doubleheader and Mid-Ohio) and in 2018 (Iowa, Toronto, Mid-Ohio and Pocono).

Andretti Autosport leads all teams with seven Iowa victories. Chip Ganassi Racing and Team Penske each has two victories. Ed Carpenter Racing and Arrow McLaren SP each have one victory.

These Iowa races are the fifth and sixth of the 2020 season. This is the earliest Iowa has ever been in an IndyCar schedule. The earliest Iowa had been was the seventh race in 2009.

The last ten Iowa winners have come from the Western Hemisphere.

The only European winners at Iowa are Dario Franchitti and Dan Wheldon.

Possible Milestones:
Scott Dixon is one victory away from becoming the third driver in IndyCar history to reach 50 victories.

Will Power is two victories away from tying Al Unser for fifth all-time on 39 victories.

Ryan Hunter-Reay is two victories away from becoming the 22nd driver in IndyCar history to reach 20 victories.

Will Power is two pole positions away from becoming the second driver in IndyCar history to reach 60 pole positions.

Scott Dixon needs to lead three more laps to surpass Al Unser (5,802) for fifth all-time in laps led.

Ryan Hunter-Reay needs to lead 55 laps to reach the 1,600 laps led milestone.

Conor Daly needs to lead 28 laps to reach the 100 laps led milestone.

Felix Rosenqvist needs to lead 21 laps to reach the 100 laps led milestone.

Predictions
Josef Newgarden and Colton Herta split the races. Newgarden will be on the podium in each race. Alexander Rossi gets a career best finish at the track. Scott Dixon's championship lead will still be respectable after this weekend. Takuma Sato is not in the top ten of both races. Will Power moves up at least two positions in the championship. Conor Daly will finish ahead of both Ed Carpenter Racing drivers in one of the races. The pole-sitter will be different for each race, but the pole-sitters will come from the same manufacture. A driver without an IndyCar victory will finish in the top five for at least one of the races. Neither race will see an American finish dead last. Sleeper: Marcus Ericsson.

Musings From the Weekend: Is This The Future?

It was a weekend of first-time winners. Chip Ganassi is ecstatic. Honda continues to have engine issues but keeps winning races. NASCAR had another Kentucky finish distract people from two hours and 58 minutes of milquetoast racing. The Cup series did miss the rain this weekend. Formula One had a calmer day in Austria than last week. Ferrari is finding new lows. The Road to Indy season finally began. There was some racing at Virginia International Raceway. Here is a rundown of what got me thinking.

Is This The Future?
We are a week removed from the IndyCar/NASCAR combination weekend from Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Behind closed doors, IndyCar and NASCAR's second division, the Xfinity Series, shared a Saturday afternoon on the road course. IndyCar raced at high noon and the NASCAR race took place into the early evening. The next day, the 2.5-mile oval was ready to go for the Cup Series to hold the Brickyard 400.

The weekend was a success. IndyCar held it race with no issues. NASCAR held its races with no issues. There weren't any problems with the racetrack and different tire manufactures competing (though we haven't seen any issues when IndyCar's Firestone rubber has run with IMSA's Continental or Michelin tires, Pirelli World Challenge's Pirelli tires and so on). NASCAR was able to install the necessary curbing after the IndyCar race. There were no issues in terms of garage space. It worked out.

It did not take long to flip the pit lane from the IndyCar setup to NASCAR's setup and I think IndyCar and the Cup series could host races on the same day. Saturday at Indianapolis was a full-day event. IndyCar held a full race at noon and the Grand National Series race took you into dinner. The same could be done with IndyCar and the Cup Series. This would allow both series to run on Sunday. One would not have to feel like a support event and be the day before. A fan would get great ticket value getting to see IndyCar's best drivers and NASCAR's best drivers race on the same day.

The Indianapolis weekend was a dress rehearsal for more to come.

Heading into the weekend, this IndyCar/NASCAR combination was already celebrated as a long-term change and NBC Sports executive producer even called the combination of the two series "the future."

This immediately spooked some IndyCar fans, thinking the series would lose its identity and become another support series to NASCAR, filling Saturday afternoons and never getting to be the Sunday showcase outside the Indianapolis 500.

It is important to remain calm and keep in mind what is realistic.

Television drove this combination weekend, and with good reason. NBC Sports broadcasts both IndyCar and NASCAR. Instead of sending production tracks to two different racetracks on the same weekend, especially if it is a course both series visit, why not combine the weekend and save cost? Same goes for IMSA and these two series.

Television also limits what can be a combination weekend. With IndyCar being entirely on NBC and NASCAR splitting its schedule with the first half on Fox and the second half on NBC, any races from February to the middle of June are off the table for combination weekends. These weekends are going to happen when NBC has both IndyCar and NASCAR on its airwaves.

There is also the limitation of racetracks. The original 2020 IndyCar schedule shared seven tracks with the three NASCAR national touring series, two of the tracks already hosted combination weekends with IndyCar and the Truck series, two series that have frequently run together over the last 25 years, running at Texas and Gateway.

The other shared tracks were Indianapolis, Road America, Mid-Ohio, Iowa and Richmond. Only two of these tracks do IndyCar and the NASCAR Cup share, Indianapolis and Richmond. The others are shared with the Grand National Series but run on different weekends.

The future might not be IndyCar running on Saturday before Cup races a dozen times but NASCAR's second division running with IndyCar. Does it make any sense for IndyCar to head to Iowa two weeks before the NASCAR Grand National Series? No, and IndyCar could run Saturday night with the NASCAR race leading in earlier that evening. Why are IndyCar and the Grand National Series running two months apart at Road America? Let's just have them run together.

Tracks will get a say into whether or not it hosts combination weekends and for some it might benefit more from having the series apart. Road America's IndyCar weekend is already packed with Road to Indy action. The NASCAR weekend at the track allows Trans-Am and Stadium Super Trucks to participate in the weekend. Combining IndyCar and NASCAR will mean someone loses out between the Road to Indy and Trans-Am. It probably makes more business sense for Road America to have IndyCar, IMSA and NASCAR each have its own weekend even if it means it costs a little more for television.

Compatibility is another hurdle for these combination weekends. We saw IndyCar struggle at Texas with the residual effects from the traction compound put in the corners for the NASCAR race. Richmond also uses said compound. Ovals were always going to be tricky because of the different tire manufactures, but the use of traction compound for the benefit of one series while hindering another will prevent combination weekends at certain ovals from occurring.

In the wake of Indianapolis, many have penciled this combination to continue into 2021 at 16th and Georgetown but does it have to be an Indianapolis event?

Indianapolis is already the top of the motorsports pile in the United States. It has the Indianapolis 500 and is a great racetrack without the combination weekend. My fear was the combination weekend would quickly be seen as an Indianapolis thing and sure enough that has been the case. While Indianapolis is a cathedral for American motorsports, I don't think it is the best place for this combination weekend.

For starters, what does IndyCar get out of it? The talk is either the Grand Prix of Indianapolis moves to the NASCAR weekend or the Grand Prix stays at the start of May and an additional race is added with the NASCAR weekend. Does IndyCar need another race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway? Does it need another race on the IMS road course? It doesn't. An additional race runs the risk of actually watering down what we see at the famed track. It might make sense on paper, but if you went to see an IndyCar race on the IMS road course in May, what is bringing you back in July when it races with NASCAR? It might be a combination weekend but if you have already seen it, why go back and see it again, especially if it is pushing triple digits on the thermometer?

IndyCar can use the combination weekend to get something for itself. Instead of doing more of the same, this could be IndyCar's chance to return to Watkins Glen, a track it struggled to establish its own weekend. It could be a chance for IndyCar to return to Michigan after over a decade away. Michigan would probably have to lose the traction compound, but the thoughts of seeing IndyCar's fly around the two-mile oval at 230 MPH with a Cup session afterward is a trade worth making. It could be a chance for IndyCar to return to Kentucky, Loudon or Pocono. It could be IndyCar's chance to go somewhere new. After all we have seen in 2020, why couldn't IndyCar run at Bristol?

Indianapolis is the selling point. It is an easy sell. Everyone knows Indianapolis Motor Speedway is hallowed grounds, but this combination weekend's highest potential is outside the Hoosier State.

We will see IndyCar and NASCAR intermingled more down the road. It might not be IndyCar and the Cup series on the same bill eight times a year, but it could happen two or three times with another two or three weekends with IndyCar and NASCAR's second series together.

Combination weekends have a future, but its future is dependent on television. With everyone under the Peacock's roof, it will happen. If one or both series decide to move to another television partner, the combination weekends will go the way of the dodo.

Winners From the Weekend
You know about Scott Dixon and Felix Rosenqvist but did you know...

Lewis Hamilton won the Styrian Grand Prix.

Robert Shwartzman and Christian Lundgaard split the Formula Two races from Austria. Frederik Vesti and Théo Pourchaire split the Formula Three races.

Danial Frost and Artem Petrov split the Indy Pro 2000 races from Road America. Christian Rasmussen swept the U.S. F2000 races.

Cole Custer won the NASCAR Cup race from Kentucky, his first career victory. Austin Cindric swept the Grand National Series races. Sheldon Creed won the Truck race, his first career victory.

The #80 Acura of Martin Barkey and Kyle Marcelli and the #04 DXDT Racing Mercedes-AMG of Colin Braun and George Kurtz split the GT World Challenge America races from Virginia International Raceway.

The #82 BMW of Bill Auberlen and James Walker, Jr. swept the GT4 America SprintX races. Spencer Pumpelly won the first GT4 America sprint race with the Michael Cooper taking the next two races.

Coming Up This Weekend
IndyCar has a night doubleheader, Friday night and Saturday night at Iowa.
NASCAR has its All-Star Race midweek from Bristol and then it heads to Texas.
IMSA has a sprint round at Sebring.
Supercars has another round at Sydney Motorsports Park.
Formula One closes out a three-week stretch in Hungary.
MotoGP opens its season in Jerez.
Super GT opens its season with its first of four Fuji rounds.
European Le Mans Series opens its season at Circuit Paul Ricard.
GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup opens its season at Imola.

First Impressions: Road America 2020 Race Two

1. Felix Rosenqvist's first career victory was coming. There were plenty of opportunities as a rookie, but rookies do not normally win. It takes time and Rosenqvist picked up valuable experiences. His charge on Scott Dixon last year at Mid-Ohio came into play today.

Last year, Rosenqvist was there, he had a faster car on fresher tires, but the defensive Dixon held off the Swede on the final lap. It was devastatingly close. Who loses by less than a tenth of a second at Mid-Ohio? Rosenqvist was brilliant but fell a few feet short.

Nearly a year later, Rosenqvist was in the same spot. Fresher tires, faster car and chasing down Patricio O'Ward, who was marvelous from pole position. Rosenqvist had made some mistakes earlier in the race. A slow pit stop cost him a great chance in the middle of the proceedings, but Rosenqvist stayed in reaching distance and it came down to a 13-lap sprint. O'Ward held the gap but Rosenqvist had legs and again went on the chase.

While O'Ward huffed and puffed, sliding around the track, he ran into traffic to make his day worse. First, it was Conor Daly, who was on fresher tires and drove back to the lead lap. Then it was Dalton Kellett. Kellett did get out of the way, but these minor disruptions were all Rosenqvist needed.

After O'Ward tapped Daly off track in turn seven yesterday, Rosenqvist made the final pass for the lead in the same corner. He scooted through and drove into the distance.

Rosenqvist coughed up a lot of points through the first three races. He should have been second at Texas and he was lost in the next two races. This season was shaping up to be a questionable sophomore year for Rosenqvist. Chip Ganassi wasn't going to accept a slump this year from Rosenqvist. He might not have fired him, though Ganassi is known for a quick trigger, but the pressure was going to be higher. Rosenqvist sealed the deal today and more is expected for the rest of the season. He is off the snide and looking to continue to soar.

2. You lost today Patricio O'Ward, but that doesn't mean you have to like it.

O'Ward's first career victory was in his fingers. He drove exceptional today. From his first career pole position, O'Ward was the man for 90% of today. He didn't put a wheel wrong and he didn't lose this race. It would be easy to toss the crew under the bus for putting on scuffed alternate tires on the car under the final pit stop while Rosenqvist took fresh primary tires. Last year, Colton Herta lost a lot of ground on alternate tires in the final stint. Herta went from fourth to eighth.

History suggests O'Ward's team made the wrong call, but today was different. After everyone who stopped early in the Saturday race had the advantage after pit stops, today favored the drivers that stopped later in a run. The team felt better on the alternate tire and they fell 2.8699 seconds short. It was a great day. It didn't pay off when it looked to be set for something tremendous. Arrow McLaren SP took a big step today. Not everything comes at once and the team has a good pilot in O'Ward.

3. Alexander Rossi finally had a good day, and it was a third-place finish. Rossi had a good car over the entire race. He was good on the alternate tire and the primary tire. He didn't have the pace of O'Ward and Rosenqvist, but he was the third best car today.

Other than yesterday, none of Rossi's poor results have been his fault. If his car starts at Texas and the fuel pressure issue doesn't happen at Indianapolis, he probably gets a top ten in both races. He might not have won but he at least finishes seventh or eighth in each. If he starts the year with a seventh, eighth and third in three of the first four races we are saying Rossi has been consistent, is off to a good start and if he strings together some victories, he will be in the title fight.

That is not the case in 2020. He is 18th in the championship over 100 points back. This shook the monkey off his back. Iowa has not been one of Rossi's better tracks, but he will need another pair of strong days.

4. Marcus Ericsson has been one of the most improved drivers in IndyCar this season. It was a little odd when Ericsson joined Ganassi. The Swede had not set the world on fire in his rookie year. He had many good runs, but those didn't always result in finishes. That is the antithesis of a Ganassi driver. The team brought him in and he has been stout. Outside of Texas, where Ericsson ran well only to have re-fueling issues cost him a top ten, he has been one of the top five drivers this season. With how he has raced, I would not be shocked in all three Ganassi drivers get a victory this season.

5. Another race, another top five finish for Colton Herta. Herta is reeling off solid finish after solid finish. After last year, he has to be enjoying these days. He had too many bad days, most of which were out of his hands. Having a car that he can trust will do wonders for his confidence and he has yet to be one of the top two or three cars in a race weekend, but he is there and will do more over the course of the season.

6. New day, same result with Santino Ferrucci in sixth, but this result was much different. Ferrucci got into the back of Jack Harvey at the start and was sent to the back of the field. This penalty was a setback, but it still allowed him to go off-strategy to get back into the race. He stopped under the cautions and stretch his stints to get a sixth-place result.

It was odd that the penalties that were end of the line for contact instead of a drive-through. I would guess that is because of the size of Road America, but putting a car at the end of the line does not have much teeth compared to making a driver lose 30 to 40 seconds and then having a gap to overcome. End of the line is setting a car back about 15 seconds and an early pit stop or different strategy and be used to circumvent the punishment.

If pit lane speeding is a drive-through, why isn't knocking a car off track through avoidable contact?

7. Álex Palou struggled in the middle of the race on tires and it dropped him from a podium contender to outside the top ten at one point. Palou rebounded and pulled out a seventh-place finish. This was a great weekend for him.

8. Three races and three times I am not sure how Takuma Sato picked up a top ten finish. All I can say is Ryan Hunter-Reay and Graham Rahal were taken out on lap one and a handful of other cars had issues during the race. Sato didn't and it allowed him to finish eighth instead of 13th. Sato's finishes are tenth, ninth and eighth. You know where he will finish in the Iowa races.

9. Josef Newgarden was on the wrong tires at the start and he lost ground he could not pick up. The primary tires set him back and he got off them as soon as he could, but he was not making his way through the field at the same rate of other drivers. It was a good recovery from yesterday and he is heading to Iowa. He will be fine.

10. Charlie Kimball does what Charlie Kimball does. He buckles down and takes an average car into the top ten. Foyt has work to do on road courses and Kimball is the right guy to have in the team. This was the team's first top ten finish at Road America since 1991 when Mike Groff finished eighth. It was a step in the right direction.

11. Will Power made contact with Hunter-Reay's left rear tire entering turn one, sending the American into the barrier and ending this race. Before the caution could be displayed for that contact, Power hip-checked Rahal in turn three, Rahal high-sided the curbs, made contact with Rosenqvist and then the barrier.

I thought the first contact with Hunter-Reay was a racing incident. It was a case of not a lot of room entering a corner and Hunter-Reay looked outside and Power was there. It happens. After that though, seconds later, Power shows no regard for human life and pinballs into Rahal. Taking out one car can slide on lap one. Taking out two? No, a penalty is needed.

Is dropping to the rear of the field enough? No. That should be a lap penalty. Tony Kanaan took out half the field at Texas a few years ago and lost two laps. I don't think seven cars should be the minimum for getting a one-lap penalty. Power took out two in one lap. If he was put down a lap right then and there, he finishes 19th, maybe he gets back on the lead lap, but he would likely still finish outside the top fifteen. There needed to be a little more bite to these penalties today.

12. When you win the first three races, you are allowed a bad day. Scott Dixon was 12th. He stalled twice on a pit stop and dropped from a top ten finish to 12th. Dixon struggled today with his rear tires. It was unusual to see considering how he drove yesterday and how his teammates did today. Either way, he is still a race victory clear of the field. He will be fine. He can keep his hands on the Astor Cup.

13. Through the rest of the field: Simon Pagenaud was nowhere this weekend and I cannot explain it. Rinus VeeKay went from 15th to sixth without a full lap of green flag racing but he faded over the entirety of the race. Guess who was 15th? Correct, it was Max Chilton. Zach Veach is settling in to being 16th for the rest of the season. Jack Harvey had another promising day crushed. Conor Daly had front wing damage at the start and could never recover. Marco Andretti was nowhere today. Dalton Kellett was there and slow. Oliver Askew got the strategy wrong, which isn't a good look when his teammate finished second.

14. Tough blows for Ryan Hunter-Reay and Graham Rahal. Both could have been top five finishers or podium finishers. I think both will recover at Iowa, but this field is better this year. Rosenqvist is winning races and Ericsson is in the top five on speed. Both Dale Coyne cars were strong in both races. Sato keeps sneaking into the top ten. Kimball is dragging A.J. Foyt Racing into the top ten. This series got tougher.

15. We did not see the usual Road America races. We kind of did. Both races saw the pole-sitter dominate, but Newgarden stalled and gave away a surefire victory and O'Ward was chased down. We had multiple incidents in each race. Alternate strategies worked. We did not get the typical Road America race where everyone is forced to stop for fuel either 12, 13, 14 or 15 laps into a stint and we go from there. We had two chances for that this weekend and neither played out that way. Only five of the first 29 Road America races had winners starting outside the five. Both winners started outside the top five this weekend. Road America works as a doubleheader weekend. I get it if it doesn't return in 2021, but I would not be against it.

16. And we race in five days, a 250-lap race at Iowa with another 250-lap race the day after that. Dixon's winning streak is over but Chip Ganassi's streak continues, four-for-four and looking to extend it to six-for-six.

Morning Warm-Up: Road America 2020 Race Two

Scott Dixon's drive into history continues today

Scott Dixon is on the verge of IndyCar history. With three consecutive victories to open the 2020 season, Dixon is one victory away from becoming the third driver in IndyCar history to reach the 50-victory milestone. A.J. Foyt was the first driver to reach the 50-victory milestone. He did it on April 6, 1975 at Trenton. Mario Andretti's 50th victory came in the 1988 season, April 10 at Phoenix. Foyt went on to win the championship that year while Andretti finished fifth. If Dixon picks up his 50th victory today, he would be the youngest driver to reach the 50-victory milestone. Foyt is currently the youngest at 40 years, two months and 22 days old. Dixon would become the third driver to open a season with four consecutive victories, joining Foyt, who won a record seven races at the start of the 1964 season, and Sébastien Bourdais, who won four consecutive races in 2006.

Will Power scored his first podium finish of 2020 with a runner-up result to Dixon. Power leaped to seventh in the championship, 83 points back. It is Power's second consecutive Road America race finishing runner-up, his third podium in his last five starts at the track and he has four top five finishes in his last five races. He started fifth in race one, his worst starting position since he started seventh in his first appearance at the track in 2006 in Champ Car.

Álex Palou stood on the podium for the first time in his IndyCar career with a third-place finish yesterday. The last driver to get a podium in his third career start was Colton Herta, who won at Austin last year. Palou became the seventh driver to score his first career podium finish at Road America. He joined Héctor Rebaque, Al Unser, Jr., Uncle Jacques Villeneuve, Alan Jones, Bruno Junqueira and Rodolfo Lavín as first-time IndyCar podium visitors at Road America.

Ryan Hunter-Reay's fourth place finish in race one was his first top five finish since finishing third at Mid-Ohio last year. He has scored five consecutive top five finishes in doubleheader races. Coincidentally, prior to yesterday, Hunter-Reay had never scored a top five finish in a doubleheader weekend not held at Belle Isle. In Texas 2011, he was 19th and ninth. At Toronto and Houston in 2013, he was outside the top fifteen in all four races. He improved at Houston in 2014 with finishes seventh and sixth but was 21st and 14th at Toronto.

Colton Herta moved up to third in the championship with his fifth-place finish yesterday, but he is 67 points behind Dixon. Herta has consecutive top five finishes for only the second time in his career. The other time was when he finished fourth at Portland and then won at Laguna Seca to close the 2019 season.

Santino Ferrucci scored his best finish on a road/street course with a sixth-place result in race one. Yesterday was also Ferrucci's best starting position on a road/street course. He started sixth, matching his best career starting position period, which came at Gateway last year. It was only the third time in his IndyCar career he had started in the top ten for a race. He started tenth at Barber last year.

Graham Rahal was seventh yesterday after a re-fueling issue cost him valuable time on his first pit stop. Rahal did get to lead two laps before entering pit lane. He has led in half of his six Road America starts, but he has never led more than two laps in a Road America race. He has never started worse than ninth at this track.

Patricio O'Ward matched his career best finish for the second consecutive race. O'Ward has four top ten finishes from 11 starts. He has only five top ten starts in his career and his only top five start was on debut at Sonoma in 2018. He has started outside the top ten in his last four starts.

Takuma Sato has finished in the top ten in his only two starts of 2020. This is the first time Sato has finished in the top ten of consecutive starts to begin a season. He had three consecutive top ten finishes last year with finishes of seventh, first and eighth at Austin, Barber and Long Beach respectively. Only once in Sato's career has he finished in the top ten of both races in a doubleheader. That was Belle Isle 2017 where he was eighth and fourth with Andretti Autosport. He started that second race on pole position.

Marcus Ericsson picked up his second consecutive top ten finish yesterday, but it could have been better than tenth. Ericsson had a half spin on the final lap while challenging for sixth in Canada Corner. He did lead two laps before his second pit stop. It is the second consecutive race Ericsson has led. In his IndyCar career, he has led nine laps in five races and has never led more than two laps in a race.

Charlie Kimball fell a position shy yesterday of getting A.J. Foyt Racing its first top ten finish at Road America since Mike Groff was eighth in 1991. In the first three races, Kimball's best finish is 11th. The only time Kimball has started a season with fourth consecutive finishes outside the top ten was in 2015 when he drove at Chip Ganassi Racing.

Simon Pagenaud slid to 62 points behind Dixon after finishing 12th in race one. That result snapped Pagenaud's 11 consecutive top ten finish streak dating back to Texas last season. He has not had consecutive finishes outside the top ten since 2017, when he was 13th at Indianapolis and 16th at Bell Isle.

Rinus VeeKay has finished better than his starting position in all three of his starts so far in his IndyCar career. Of course, VeeKay has never started better than 16th, but his starting position has improved at every race. This is VeeKay's fourth career start. The last driver to pick up a first career victory in the fourth start of a career was Sébastien Bourdais at Brands Hatch in 2003.

Josef Newgarden suffered his worst Road America finish yesterday when he crossed the line in 14th. It dropped Newgarden to fourth in the championship, 71 points behind Dixon. Three of Newgarden's 14 career victories have come after finishing outside the top ten in the race before. In 2015, he won a Toronto after finishing 21st at Texas. His 2018 Road America victory was after finishing 13th at Texas. Last year, he won at Texas after finishing 19th at Belle Isle. In his previous 11 doubleheader weekends, he has finished in the top ten of the second race of the weekend only twice and both were top five finishes.

Oliver Askew started at the back of the pack in race one and could only managed a 15th-place finish. After being the only rookie to finish the season opener at Texas and pick up a ninth-place finish in the process, Askew is now third of the rookies in the championship, 17th on 42 points.

Zach Veach is hanging onto ninth in the championship after finishing 14th and 16th in his last two raes. He is 91 points behind Dixon and only five points to the go of staying in the top ten. Sixteenth is Veach's best finish at Road America and his results have gradually improved from 22nd and 18th. However, Veach's starting position at this track continue to decline. He started 11th on his Road America debut and has since followed it with starts of 14th and 20th.

Max Chilton extended his streak to 32 consecutive races without a top ten finish with his 17th place result yesterday. In 17 of those races, Chilton has finished better than his starting position. He has finished 16th or 17th in his last three Road America starts.

For the first time in Felix Rosenqvist's IndyCar career he has finished outside the top ten in three consecutive races. The last Ganassi driver to open a season with four consecutive finishes outside the top ten was Max Chilton in 2017. Before Chilton was the aforementioned Charlie Kimball 2015 season and before Kimball it was Ryan Briscoe in 2005. Those are the only three times such a start has happened for a Ganassi driver.

Alexander Rossi's miserable 2020 season continued in race one from Road America. It is the first time since 2017 Rossi has had three consecutive finishes outside the top ten. He ended that slide with a runner-up finish at Toronto. In every doubleheader Rossi has participated in, he has picked up at least one top ten finish from the weekend. Rossi is 22nd in the championship on 31 points, the lowest of the drivers to start every race in 2020.

Dalton Kellett's second career start was not his greatest outing. Kellett went off in the final corner coming to the green flag for the lap 44 restart. This cost Kellett a lap and he finished 20th. On the bright side, it was his best finish in his IndyCar career.

Conor Daly hurt his shoulder in his accident in yesterday's race. Daly did get out of the car and said he would be ready to go for today's race. His accident did drop Daly out of the top ten in the championship. He sits in 13th. Daly's best Road America finish was 15th in 2017.

Marco Andretti's nightmare start continued at Road America, running off course and colliding with a sponsor board, forcing an extra pit stop and speeding on said stop ruined a tenth place starting position. It was the third time Andretti had started in the top ten at Road America. He has never finished in the top ten at the track. He did pick up fastest lap,

Jack Harvey rounded out the field in race one after losing his brakes going into turn three. It matches Harvey's worst finish on a road/street course. He was 23rd last year at St. Petersburg after an accident. The worst finish of his career was on debut in the 2017 Indianapolis 500 in 31st. With his front row start yesterday, Harvey picked up a point for topping his qualifying group in this doubleheader qualifying format.

Qualifying for race two will be at 10:00 a.m. ET. NBC's coverage of the REV Group Grand Prix at Road America Race Two will begin at noon ET with green flag scheduled for 12:42 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 55 laps.