Preview – 2016 Iowa Corn 300
By Dylan Reynolds, The Open Wheel
This weekend INDYCAR heads to Iowa Speedway for the Verizon IndyCar Series Iowa Corn 300 and the Indy Lights Iowa Challenge Presented by Cooper Tires. This track has been dominated by Andretti Autosport as the team has won 7 of the 9 Verizon IndyCar Series races held at Iowa Speedway including the last 6! The Open Wheel will be covering the action all weekend so stay tuned to this site and our Twitter page @openwh33l for all the latest news.
Photo by Parker Hall/The Open Wheel
Schedule – Entry List – Spotter Guide – Circuit Map – Pit Lane Assignments – Tickets
Indy Lights Preview: Indy Lights Iowa Challenge Presented by Cooper Tires (Entry List), Race – Sunday July 10, 2016 3:15PM (ET) – Results from last year show Carlin’s domination at Iowa in 2015 as Max Chilton and Ed Jones led a Carlin 1-2. Kyle Kaiser managed a Top 5 performance last year by finishing in P4. I expect a tight battle between Jones and Kaiser as they also finished 1-2 in Kaiser’s win on the short oval at Phoenix earlier this year. My pick to win: Ed Jones
Verizon IndyCar Series Preview: Iowa Corn 300, Sunday July 10, 2016 5:00PM (ET) NBCSN – Previous driver experience at Iowa shows Ryan Hunter-Reay is the man to watch as he’s the only driver to win the race multiple times. Other winners are Andretti, Hinchcliffe, and Kannan (all with Andretti Autosport). The other big takeaway is the struggle Team Penske and its drivers have had at Iowa Speedway over the years. Their current drives have just 3 Top 5’s in 22 combined starts at Iowa. Results from 2015 and 2014 further illustrate RHR’s dominance as he’s won the last two races, but Josef Newgarden has been right behind him in P2 in each of the last two years. That bodes well for the ECR driver if he can hold up at the physical Iowa bullring with his injuries. No other drivers have had consecutive Top 5’s over the last two years but Rahal and Carpenter have each finished in the Top 10 in their last two Iowa starts (as did Ryan Briscoe). My pick to win: Ryan Hunter-Reay – How can you pick against this team or this driver at Iowa? RHR has dominated this event with 3 wins, 4 Top 5’s, and 7 Top 10’s in 8 starts. He hasn’t done it with dominance (he’s only led a total of 54 laps), but you can almost definitely expect him to be in contention at the end.
My fantasy.indycar.com picks: Ryan Hunter-Reay, Marco Andretti, Scott Dixon, & Max Chilton – Have to rely on some Andretti Autosport dominance here and Ryan Hunter-Reay and Marco Andretti should be very strong. Andretti has 4 Top 5’s in his 9 starts as well as 6 Top 10’s. Scott Dixon has Top 5’s at Iowa in 5 of his 9 starts and has been in the Top 10 7 times so he’s a more than solid pick. Max Chilton won the Lights race at Iowa last year and was surprisingly strong at Phoenix earlier this year so I’m counting on him to have a big day in his Verizon IndyCar Series debut at Iowa Speedway.