NEWTON, Iowa Entering Saturday nights Hy-Vee Homefront 250 IndyCar Race at Iowa Speedway, many of the drivers in the race said the high line was too slippery for the high-speed cars to use. They said it was one-second-per-lap slower than the freshly repaved lower lines in the sweeping Turns 1 and 2 and Turns 3 and 4 areas.
One even said the pellets of worn tire rubber, known as marbles, were invisible and looked like dust. During a hot and windy qualification session on Saturday afternoon, the chances of making the high-line work in Saturday nights race were like Dust in the Wind.
Josef Newgarden of Team Penske had no fear of racing in that portion of the track.
After a disappointing qualification effort that left him starting 22nd, Newgarden believed he still had a fast car for the race.
Nobody should know that better than Newgarden, winner of six races at Iowa Speedway far more than any other driver.
The track had cooled slightly when the race began shortly after 8 p.m. ET and it didnt take Newgarden long to prove that nobody does it better at Iowa than the driver from Hendersonville, Tennessee.
Newgarden passed eight cars in the opening lap, driving to the high line and wall riding his way past the back third of the field.
From that point forward, Newgarden realized he had the best car in the race.
He was able to rally from his worst starting position of the season at 22ndand finish third, the final position on the podium, in Saturday nights race. Team Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin was the winner for the sixth time in his career, his first on an oval. Last weeks winner of the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio, Pato OWard, was second followed by Newgardens No. 2 Chevrolet.
Newgarden saved the day with that finish and will start the second race of the Hy-Vee IndyCar Race Weekend at Iowa Speedway 14th as the driver seeks to win his seventh career race at Iowa.
Newgarden explained how he was able to make his Chevrolet Indy car work on a part of the track that sent other drivers into the wall.
Calculated risk tonight, Newgarden said. You were flirting with disaster. It wasn’t a given. There wasn’t the real estate to use, just secondhand. It’s not like a second nature type thing you could use. You were risking the car every time you tried to move offline on somebody.
I did it a couple times. I had to. We had to take a little bit of risk to get forward. Even at the end I thought we could get another spot or two.
Look, our race car was fantastic. That’s always the difference maker. When you have the best car in the field, it’s easier to do what we did tonight. I think we had that. Like I said, we ran out of time and real estate.
The pit stops were the biggest part of it. That’s what got us the most. I think we put ourselves in position to make those pit stops what they were. We got a little bit on the racetrack.
Tomorrow, we need the same deal. Despite Newgardens no fear attitude to run up high, the back-to-back Indianapolis 500 winner is not a driver who celebrates third-place finishes. When he posed with his third-place trophy on the podium, he didnt exactly smile.
But the Team Penske driver had plenty to be proud of with his biggest mover of the race effort.
It just wasnt enough to make it all the way to the victory.
Yeah, tough night, Newgarden said. I think for us on the 2 car, we ran out of time and real estate, so … I wish we had maybe one more fuel stint, would have helped us, at least if you’re looking at tonight specifically and the setup.
It was a great recovery by the team. My goodness, they were really good in the pits, like really, really good. If Pato’s guys were good, mine must have been double as good. I made up probably 80 percent of my positions in the pits tonight.
They’ve been good all year. Tonight, they really brought it, and we needed it.
Because of IndyCars introduction of the hybrid engine, combined with Iowa Speedway track owner NASCARs decision to only repave the lower lanes of the turns and not all the way to the wall, it completely changed the dynamic and style of IndyCar racing at Iowa Speedway.
Second-place finisher OWard was asked if the entire track should be repaved?
Thats probably up to NASCAR, OWard said. I don’t know who decided to do this change.
They ruined a fantastic race.
In Newgardens case, it simply made his race more difficult because he was still able to put on the show, despite starting in the back.
You can’t start 22nd, especially this year, Newgarden said. If it was last year, I would have been okay starting 22nd.
This was like almost the kiss of death this year to start that far back. That was the tough part for us.
Tomorrow we’re a little bit higher. I’m excited about that. I think we start 14th tomorrow. Not great by any means, but better than what tonight was.
Everyone did a super job. Really proud of Team Penske. Scott with the win. First and third on the podium. I don’t think we can be too disappointed as a group. A solid night for the team.
Newgarden believed his poor performance in Saturdays qualifications was a timing issue with the setup of his car. He believed qualifying was a result of not being in the right place when the car rolled off the truck.
What we did on Friday was productive, but we were in the wrong spot right before we needed to go into qualifying, Newgarden explained. You’re guessing a little bit on what you do then. We just didn’t get it perfect. The balance was way off, way off. It doesn’t take a lot to really lose lap time. I think I was 4/10ths off, which is pretty tiny even at Iowa for a massive imbalance.
I feel like we got ourselves in that situation in Mid-Ohio. It’s disappointing for me because we are a good group. I mean, I’ve got total faith in what we’re doing. The 2 team is strong. We have a good process. We just have had our timing off. That kills this weekend. If you qualify 22nd and 14th, it nearly kills this weekend.
It’s tough when the timing is in the wrong place. But Newgarden knew when it came to the race, he had a fast Chevy and proved it on the track.
I knew it in practice yesterday I had a really good race car, Newgarden said. It’s the way it goes. It’s our own problem to deal with that we’re sitting that far back in points.
I think that’s a reflection of what happened in qualifying today.
Sunday will be a new day for Newgarden. He lines up 14th and will have fewer cars to track down to get to the front.
Dont count him out because his track record at Iowa is better than any other driver in the field.
Follow Bruce Martin on Twitter at @BruceMartin_500