Iowa Speedway presents schedule's third high-speed buzz saw source: indycar.com / Dave Lewandowski Among the seven races so far this season, IndyCar Series drivers have competed on one short oval (The Milwaukee Mile on June 3). They'll get a double dose the next two weekends. The inaugural IndyCar Series race at the 0.875-mile Iowa Speedway will be followed in short order (six days to be exact) by the annual event at the 0.75-mile Richmond International Raceway. Both high-banked facilities with multiple racing grooves will produce 17-second laps and enough kinetic energy to light up nearby Des Moines. The Rusty Wallace-designed Iowa Speedway, cutting a swath through corn fields and its grandstand the tallest structure for miles along I-80, features a 60-foot-wide racing surface, compound banking (12, 13 and 14 degrees) in the turns and 1,075-foot frontstretch. Since the IndyCar Series conducted a feasibility test last August, followed by team bonus and Firestone tire testing, more and more drivers have enthusiastically endorsed the track. Click it: Use Talkback below to provide your insight about Iowa Speedway and project a race winner. "I had a chance to test at Iowa in May, and I was very impressed with the track," Team Penske's Helio Castroneves said. "My first impression was that it's a mix of Richmond and Texas. It's small like Richmond, but you can go full throttle all the way around the track like you can at Texas. These two characteristics should create some intense, side-by side racing action. I also think the race will be very physically challenging." Castroneves and Team Penske teammate Sam Hornish Jr. have fared well on the short ovals (save for The Mile in June because of a structural failure of the rear wing mount) the past three years. Hornish won from the pole at Milwaukee in 2005, and Castroneves has started from the pole the past two years at The Mile. He led 126 laps before the rear wing misadventure. At Richmond, the duo has either won or started from the pole the past three years (trading start-finish positions the past two). That's not to short shrift Andretti Green Racing's Tony Kanaan, who has won the past two races at Milwaukee. He also liked what he saw during a test at Iowa Speedway.
Recent Articles
|
Racing Multimedia
Recommendations |