First Impressions: Iowa 2019

1. This is going to be quick because I am starting typing at 2:15 a.m. ET and I had planned for this race to be over before 9:00 p.m. ET yesterday.

Josef Newgarden is the short oval maestro. Another dominating performance, another untouchable performance and this time it extends his championship lead. It is incredible. It feels like we can pencil Newgarden in for at least 125 laps led at Iowa although you could probably pencil him in for 200 laps led and be just as right.

Newgarden got the led early and on a night when Team Penske had the top three or three of the top four for majority of this race, Newgarden really went unchallenged and he qualified the worse of the three cars. He was strong. He is going to Mid-Ohio and he has won there before and he has the championship in his control.

2. At one point, when Scott Dixon was 17th and two laps down, I was ready to write him off and say this was the night that Scott Dixon's championship hopes for 2019 were extinguished. Somehow Dixon ended up with a runner-up finish. He went long before his final pit stop and caught a caution. He was third when that occurred because Newgarden and Simon Pagenaud had just cycled ahead of him and Dixon was going to stop at any moment.

Without that caution, Dixon may finish 13th. But on that final stint Dixon went from sixth to second and picked off the front-runners with ease. We shouldn't be surprised and yet we are. Dixon did something similar to this at Road America, except he found a way to raise the bar again.

3. James Hinchcliffe gets off the snide and finishes third, his first podium finish since his Iowa victory last year and his first top five finish since his Iowa victory last year. Hinchcliffe spent most of this race in the top five. It was a solid night and he deserved this result. For a moment before that final restart it felt like déjà vu and Hinchcliffe was bound to steal another Iowa victory after Newgarden led over 200 laps but it did not happen. Third is still a great result.

4. The Iowa pole-sitter has still yet to finish on the podium at Iowa with Simon Pagenaud finishing fourth. He was not good on restarts tonight and he restarted second on that final restart. Pagenaud was the third or fourth best car in this one and he was the worst of the three Team Penske cars. This is a bit of a disappointment for him because he didn't have anything for Newgarden.

5. If IndyCar adds Richmond and maybe Memphis and another short oval Spencer Pigot may win a race because for the second consecutive year he drove to the front. It didn't end in a podium finish but he finished fifth and he was strong. Both Ed Carpenter Racing cars were but unfortunately Ed Carpenter was the cause for the final caution and instead of having both cars in the top five, only Pigot carried the torch.

6. Alexander Rossi drops to 29 points behind Newgarden in the championship, which is big but not insurmountable. Rossi was around fifth all day in this one and if Dixon doesn't have the turnaround of a lifetime Rossi would have finished fifth. His car was really good on long runs. There were cars that were explosive and would pass Rossi early in a stint but within 20 laps Rossi would retake the position with ease. He was good and he has had a few days like this where he is only good and he finishes fifth or sixth. He is still in it and I don't think he should be concerned.

7. Zach Veach gets his best finish of the season in seventh. Veach's car got better as the night went along and bravo to him for getting this result. He has had a long season.

8. Graham Rahal had a cracked header for the final 100 laps it seemed and he held on for eighth. I think he deserves eighth if he had to nurse that to the finish.

9. Somehow, Sébastien Bourdais finished ninth and I only say that because he wasn't close to the top ten until about 50 laps to go. I got to double-check but perhaps he went long like Dixon and made up ground that way. Either way, great result for his 200th start after starting 21st.

10. Somehow, Tony Kanaan finished tenth and he was not near the top ten all night. Bourdais and Kanaan both benefitted from attrition but good for them getting these results.

11. Quickly through the rest of the field: Marcus Ericsson misses out on the top ten but he was strong tonight. He had an improper pit entry cost him on his final stop. Without that penalty I think he finishes ahead of Rahal and perhaps Veach. Ericsson was close to Hinchcliffe over the first stint, took a step back in the middle of the race but found his legs down the stretch.

Santino Ferrucci was quick at the start of the run and it was noticeable because he went from 12th to sixth at the start but his car did not have long run pace. That cost him and he finished where he started in 12th.

Conor Daly kept his nose clean and finished 13th. Felix Rosenqvist didn't keep his nose clean but it wasn't his fault. He clipped Sage Karam after Karam spun in front of him. Rosenqvist recovered to finish 14th.

Will Power had an improper pit entry and he went from second to 15th. I am not sure any other driver has had more unforced errors this season.

12. Matheus Leist finished ahead of Ryan Hunter-Reay and that is a head scratcher. Hunter-Reay looked good at the start and made up some positions but his car was not the same after the red flag at lap 55. It was an odd off night for Hunter-Reay in Iowa.

Colton Herta's car broke on him with less than 20 laps to go and it cost him a top ten finish. Takuma Sato looked racy before he slowed and Sage Karam clipped him. That early spin put Karam behind the eight ball and that was a hard blow for him.

Marco Andretti had the night from hell and between tonight and the Indianapolis 500 he has had a wild horse of a race car in two of the three oval races. This is a tough year for Andretti and I am sure he and the team have to start looking to improve for 2020.

13. It is too late to go over everything I want to and I think Monday or Tuesday I will go into expanded impressions but here are the quick hitters:

Drivers cannot complain about the sunset and the sun being in their eyes. I know it isn't ideal but we cannot have a race delay because of the sun. Not to mention that the NASCAR Xfinity Series will be running at Iowa next week at the same time the IndyCar race was scheduled to start tonight. I know those cars are slower but IndyCar cannot let the sun stop a race from happening.

With that said, I thought this race was great in the dark. It was a different race than if it had started at its scheduled time and I kind of wanted to see that race to see how tire degradation played into it but oh well.

I think A.J. Allmendinger did a respectable job in the booth.

I really want Iowa to succeed and we have had a few odd years for Iowa. The Sunday races were not well received. Tonight's race became a Sunday morning race. The race didn't have a title sponsor despite knowing it wasn't going to have a title sponsor for almost a year. I am worried about the long-term future for IndyCar at Iowa. I am optimistic it will work out but things have to look different in 2020.

Also, thank goodness there wasn't an Indy Lights race that still has to be run like in 2012.

14. Mid-Ohio is a week away and after tonight that two-week break cannot come soon enough.