Iowa – the field of dreams, and the fields of corn. Put the two together, and you get the seven-eighths of a mile oval known as the Iowa Speedway. Those dreams for many who enter the racetrack on Saturday night for the Iowa Corn Indy 300 for the Verizon IndyCar Series will be dashed, but one driver will see theirs realized.
Here are the four to follow, storylines for IndyCar at Iowa Speedway:
The Oval Trifecta
The final of a three-race oval stretch, Iowa looks to be commanded once more by the drivers who have controlled the previous two ovals on the calendar. While both Sebastian Bourdais and Graham Rahal took the wins at Milwaukee and California, be on the lookout for two other drivers who led large parts of these races in Josef Newgarden and Tony Kanaan.
The Race for the Championship
With only four races to go on the schedule, the question no longer is who will take charge of the championship in IndyCar, but can anyone catch leader Juan Pablo Montoya? He holds a commanding lead of over fifty points over second place Scott Dixon, and has been the point leader since early in the season. Will he hold on for the last four races, or will Iowa throw a monkey wrench in his plans?
More Power!
After Milwaukee, both Chevrolet and Honda were penalized for having engines that did not make it to their required life span. While only one Chevy engine did not make it, four Honda engines failed as well. Chevy’s lead in the manufacturer race was padded by this, and there could be more of the same at Iowa for both.
Quantity over Quality
On small detail to consider going into the race on Saturday night, will be who is on the track before the main series. The ARCA Series takes to the track on Friday night, and the Pro Mazda and Indy Lights Series will race on Saturday afternoon. That means two different tire manufacturers – Cooper and Hoosier – will have their rubber down on the track before the Firestone reds and blacks make it out. It will be interesting to watch how Iowa rubbers in over the night, and the weekend.
Be sure to tune in and watch the Iowa Corn Indy 300 on NBCSN this weekend, starting with qualifying right after the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at New Hampshire. Then the race gets underway shortly after 8 pm eastern time.
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