1. It was a long time coming, but Scott McLaughlin's first career oval victory was bound to happen sooner rather than later. McLaughlin's oval record, for a man who had never run an oval prior to 2021, is remarkable. More times than not he is finishing in the top ten and pushing for a top five finish. He was second in his first oval race at Texas. Just over three years later, he is on the top step of the podium for the first time, on a night when even McLaughlin admits the pit crew won the race.
The new surface in the corners combined with the new tire compound and hybrid system made this race far different than any previous Iowa race. It was a single-lane race. Not much could be done off the bottom lane. That second lane in the middle of the track never developed, and making up positions would likely come down to pit stops and restarts.
McLaughlin got ahead of Colton Herta, who led the opening stint with McLaughlin on his heels, through the first round of pit stops. The first round of pit stops were under caution and McLaughlin got out ahead of Herta by about a foot. That was the race.
There were a few challenges from Herta and later Patricio O'Ward, but once McLaughlin got through those first two or three laps after a restart, it was all his. No one could make a run and traffic was never a factor. There were a slew of restarts at the end, but at that point, no would could do anything to knock McLaughlin out of the top spot.
A second victory of the season for McLaughlin and the #3 Penske Chevrolet, this one falling heavily on the shoulders of the pit crew.
2. Patricio O'Ward had a chance to steal a second race in as many weeks in the final pit cycle, but he could only manage second. O'Ward was in the top five the entire race. This was a race where if you had track position you kept track position. O'Ward didn't do anything remarkable other than not make a mistake.
3. When third is a bad day, you know you are pretty good. For Josef Newgarden, third is a bad day, but also a boost after how this weekend started. Newgarden was struggling for speed in practice. He qualified 22nd for this race, and he will start outside the top ten tomorrow.
Like McLaughlin, Newgarden credited the crew after this race for getting him up to third, but Newgarden's gets a little more credit. He made up many spots at the start and on restarts. The pit crew made it easier in the final stage of the race. The final pit stop moved him from eighth to fourth. Newgarden got that final position on his own, passing Scott Dixon in the final run to the finish. It looked like Newgarden was in for one of his worst Iowa races in a long time. Instead, he is on the podium, not a victory but not a disaster either.
4. Scott Dixon probably should have been on the podium. Colton Herta was caught out when he made his second and final pit stop under green and it just so happened Álex Palou spun exiting turn four as Herta was in his pit box. This moved Dixon up to second and he had a shot to leapfrog McLaughlin in the final pit cycle.
Instead, Dixon had a slow getaway from his pit box and that allowed O'Ward to take second. Then Newgarden got Dixon in the final laps. This should have been at worst a third-place result for Dixon.
5. Rinus VeeKay kept his nose clean and picked up his first top five finish since Mid-Ohio in 2022. This was a team that needed a good result. Ed Carpenter Racing has been bad this year. VeeKay's summer has not gotten off to a great start. He mostly had good pit stops and didn't put a wheel wrong. Sometimes that gets you a great result.
6. Santino Ferrucci likely had the drive of the race. Ferrucci was penalized early for getting out of line on a restart. It was a stop-and-go penalty because he did not serve it quickly enough. Fortunately, Ferrucci got the wave around after Graham Rahal slowed on the circuit to bring out a caution. From that point, Ferrucci picked up a few spots here and there, on restarts, on pit stops. He went on a charge late and got up to sixth. Credit to him as he has seven top ten finishes this season after having one top ten finish all of last season, and there are still seven races remaining.
7. Kyle Kirkwood survived this race. Kirkwood spent a great deal of this race outside the top ten. The only saving grace was the leaders weren't running down the back of the pack and lapping cars left and right. Kirkwood was the last car on the lead lap for a good 50-lap portion of the early stages, but Herta never got close to lapping him. By staying on the lead lap and out of trouble, Kirkwood could suffer and still finish seventh.
8. While Josef Newgarden gained four spots on his final pit stop, Alexander Rossi lost four positions, and Rossi could not do much to correct it from there. He couldn't go forward. He ended up finishing eighth. He spent much of this race in the top five and directly behind his teammate O'Ward. Eighth is fine but considering how his race was going, Rossi could have had more on this night.
9. Marcus Ericsson overcame only getting three practice laps yesterday before his accident to pull out a ninth-place result tonight. Nothing flashy here. It could have been worse. Ericsson had a brake fire before the final restart. He was looking to finish sixth or seventh before that, but the Swede was able to limp home in ninth. It is better than it could have been.
10. Marcus Armstrong had a peculiar final 40 laps or so. On one of the restarts, Armstrong's caution lights in his rear wing did not go out and kept blinking. He was black flagged for the issue, but that glitch is something that IndyCar controls. It appeared Armstrong was coming to pit lane, but remained on the bottom of the circuit. Directly ahead of him, Colton Herta half-spun and brought out a caution.
Armstrong never did come in and on the ensuing restart, the problem was gone. It salvaged a top ten finish for him, which is a fair showing of his night.
11. This is a rough one for Colton Herta. Herta was controlling the opening stint and if he doesn't lose a spot in pit lane to McLaughlin on the first stop, his race likely goes differently. McLaughlin had the best car on the night, but Herta could have won with the track position. Herta should have been no worse than second tonight.
The team had to come early for the second stop because Herta was experiencing a rough vibration and had fallen over three seconds behind McLaughlin. It was well within the pit window to make the finish, but it just happened to be the lap Álex Palou spins out and has his first retirement in over two years.
Herta was frustrated on the radio about the team stopping that early, but it is easy to get upset when that caution happens literally as the team is changing tires. Herta couldn't hold on much longer and had been begging for a stop for the 20 laps prior to that. It is cruel that the team made the right call and it happened a caution came out as it was making the pit stop. If he goes one more lap, no problem, and Herta is pitting from second and hoping to do the reverse of the first round of stops to McLaughlin. Instead, Herta is caught a lap down and has to get the wave around back to the lead lap.
The half-spin was another set-back. Maybe Herta finishes in the top ten if it doesn't happen, but this was a night where all the cards went against him. There was not much better he could do than finish 11th.
12. Let's get through the rest of the finishers quickly. Nolan Siegel ran all 250 lap. That is a crucial in your first career oval start. Siegel may have had a shot at the top ten but got swallowed up on those late restarts. He will learn.
Felix Rosenqvist was 13th and didn't do much. The same can be said for Kyffin Simpson in 14th. When nine cars end up retiring from a race, Sting Ray Robb is bound to finish 15th.
Graham Rahal had a spindle in the rim break on him. Talk about a freak failure. Rahal wasn't going to finish in the top five in this one, but he could have snuck into the top ten. Instead, he was a lap down in 16th. Katherine Legge was also a lap down, which is about as good as we could expect from Dale Coyne Racing.
13. As for the cars that did not finish...
Well, Will Power did finish, but eight laps down after he spun Pietro Fittipaldi, who collected Ed Carpenter. Power also had a pit lane speeding penalty in this race, which he never recovered from. The contact was an error on Power and it ended Fittipaldi's and Carpenter's nights, two of which weren't that notable before the accident.
Linus Lundqvist had some kind of failure when he was running in the top ten. Lundqvist and VeeKay had similar races going prior to Lundqvist's issue.
It still isn't clear what happened to Christian Lundgaard. Lundgaard spun on the opening lap but he was well behind the accident where David Malukas spun up the track and collected both Juncos Hollinger Racing cars of Agustín Canapino and Romain Grosjean. Lundgaard was brought to garage and repaired, but returned to the race over 20 laps down. Lundgaard was able to run 178 laps and finish 22nd, but his race was done from lap one.
Let's cover the opening lap incident here. Malukas clipped the apron and the JHR cars had nowhere to go. Malukas took all the blame. It is an error on him, but not the worst one in the world. Grosjean did get repaired and returned to the circuit.
14. Álex Palou was already in for a rough night prior to his spin. On the first pit stop, Palou entered in third, but stalled exiting his box. This knocked him out of a top three position and at the back of the lead lap. Palou made up some ground in that second stint, but stalled out before he could get into the top ten and then he spun almost halfway down the main straightaway.
It looked like something broke at first, but it was just a driver error. It is his first retirement since Road America in 2022. In that race, Palou was spun off after contact with then-teammate Marcus Ericsson. This is truly Palou's first major mistake since the 2022 Grand Prix of Indianapolis when he spun on a damp surface and got stuck in the grass, costing him a lap. Even then there is some forgiveness. Palou doesn't make mistakes often. He will rebound from this. For the moment, the championship is a little tighter.
15. I want to take a second to talk about Jack Harvey. During the week, it was made public Harvey was battling back and neck problems at Mid-Ohio and suffered through that race. He was going to give Iowa ago, but it was clear during qualifying he was not going to be capable of going the full distance. Conor Daly will likely be in the car tomorrow for race two. Daly wasn't in the car tonight because Daly had not completed any practice laps and there was not enough time for a special session. That meant Harvey had to start the race. This was always going to be a start-and-park effort.
Harvey was just lucky two other cars were knocked out on the opening lap and it gave him two more spots, but effectively no more points because Harvey was 25th and everything from 25th on down pays five points. It at least helps with his average finish.
Considering Harvey isn't technically full-time as he already missed the Indianapolis 500, and Dale Coyne Racing has no shot at victory, the team should have been proactive and sat Harvey before this weekend even began. If DCR is that concerned about Leader Circle positioning, it should have put a healthy driver in the car from the start and saved the seat for when Harvey was comfortable.
That might be a little bit of hindsight, but it is also the pragmatic thing to do at this point in the season. Give Harvey Toronto off and let his Olympic break begin early. There is no point rushing him out if he cannot go more than five green flag laps at Iowa.
16. Night races are rough in terms of writing. It is tougher when it is the first race of a doubleheader and the second race is about 14 hours away. We will have time to write about the track, the tires, the lack of a second lane and more after race two. It could be different tomorrow, but it likely will not be. We will do a more thorough breakdown once this entire weekend is in the books.
Oh! Race control. One quick thing on race control... it policed restarts very tightly tonight. There were multiple penalties for cars getting out of line. We cannot get mad at race control for enforcing the rules and then complain when restarts look like a mess and are a free-for-all.
It was different. It didn't help that this was a race where passing was nearly non-existent. If this had been any other Iowa race, we likely would not have had any of those penalties or race control would not have been in a position to call any of those.
Whenever race control gets involved, people automatically get upset. No matter what, it is seen as overreach, but I don't know how else a race should be officiated. Otherwise, it looks like anarchy and everyone is upset that the drivers do as they please.
Let's just say this race didn't save itself from race control being a headline once it was over. That will likely be the bigger story once this weekend is over.
