IndyCar Preview: Iowa 275s
- Dan Jones
- Jul 11
- 10 min read
Written by Dan Jones
It's that time of the year again! It's twice the fun for IndyCar as the series hosts two races at the 'Fastest Short Track on the Planet' as the show hits corn country in Newton, Iowa. With the Álex Palou and Kyle Kirkwood's win streak finally over and double the points up for offer, there's certainly plenty to play for at Iowa Speedway, which hosts rounds 11 and 12 of 17 in the 2025 IndyCar season.
What happened at Mid-Ohio?
Up until Mid-Ohio, the storyline of 2025 had been the dominance of Palou and Kirkwood, with the pair claiming all nine victories up to that point, six-three in Palou's favour. Palou had been victorious at every road course to that point, and was the heavy favourite for one of his best venues at Mid-Ohio.
As many expected, Palou's claimed the pole position and had dominated the first 85 laps as he looked on his way for his seventh victory of the season. However, with just five laps to go, disaster struck for Palou, as he went off at Turn 9 all by himself in the most uncharacteristic of errors. That allowed his teammate, Scott Dixon through to claim his first victory of the season and continue to narrow his gap to A.J. Foyt as IndyCar's winningest driver.
Dixon, as he has done his entire career, was a fuel-save strategy, attempting the two-stop, which he executed brilliantly. The Kiwi would hold Palou's challenge off in the final few laps as the Spaniard had to settle for second. Christian Lundgaard claimed his fourth podium of the season in third, ahead of Colton Herta and Pato O'Ward.
As has been a shockingly common theme throughout the course of 2025, it was yet another disastrous weekend for Team Penske. Josef Newgarden was involved in an accident on the opening lap, whilst Will Power had to pull over with an engine issue 11 laps in. Scott McLaughlin's day wouldn't be any better either as he suffered a tyre delamination which resulted in him finishing 23rd at the flag. The team have not finished inside the top 10 for three consecutive races with any car.
The race saw 775,000 viewers, down from the 1.2 million that NBC achieved last season, however, the series faced a direct clash with NASCAR's event in Chicago. FOX remains 27% up on NBC's average viewership from 2024.
You can read the full race report here, the DIVEBOMB IndyCar Podcast's race review here and my gradebook here.
Despite Palou's late blunder, an eighth-place finish for Kirkwood at Mid-Ohio has extended his championship points lead to over the 100 point mark. Unless he suffers a calamitous weekend at Iowa, a fourth title for Palou remains a case of when not if.
Top 10 in points are as follows:
Palou - 430
Kirkwood - 317
O'Ward - 305
Dixon - 282
Lundgaard - 263
Rosenqvist - 259
Herta - 217
Armstrong - 209
Power - 202
Ferrucci - 198
Everything to know about Iowa
After IndyCar visited one of it's most traditional road courses at Mid-Ohio last week, it visits a high-speed short oval at Iowa, just highlighting the diversity of venues in the IndyCar schedule. The oval is 0.894 miles (1.439 km) with banking reaching a maximum of 14 degrees, with 10 degrees on the frontstretch and four on the backstretch. Drivers are turning left for approximately 94 percent of the lap and is an extreme physical challenge for those racing.
Prior to last years race, the circuit went through a significant repave, to accommodate the needs of the NASCAR Cup Series as it visited the venue for the first time. That caused major controversy within the series, as only the low lane was repaved which caused hugely inflated speeds in comparison to previous years.
This was only further worsened by the fact the high line was near-impossible to run due to an extreme lack of grip in comparison to the low line. This made overtaking completely unreasonable outside of starts and restarts and lead to a particularly processional two races. For context, the opening race of 2024 saw 192 overtakes compared to the 1502 that were completed the year prior.
This is expected to be an issue once again in 2025. The series hosted a test several weeks ago at the Speedway, with early indications from drivers being that the surface has not yielded more grip on the high line.
Lundgaard said: "I think all of us are going to think that it's going to be very similar to last year, in a sense, and even with the race being a little longer than last year, I still think we're going to see a pretty straightforward single-lane race."
Palou echoed Lundgaard's comments: We were trying everything we could, INDYCAR in general and all the teams, trying to get a package that was going to be better. I don't think we found it. But maybe it could change.
It is believed that the series have trialled several different packages in preparation for this race, including one with much higher rates of downforce. Early feedback from the test has suggested though that it only makes it harder to follow, and drivers can go flat around the white line which will make overtaking even more difficult.
The series will be hosting a high-line session though as is regularly done on ovals, to try and increase the grip on the higher lane to promote better racing. Although this has worked at venues such as Gateway, it is expected to have little impact at Iowa.
The other significant change to the event coming into this year is that Hy-Vee, who were funding the event for several years, have departed as the primary sponsor. Hy-Vee's promotion of the event saw several major concerts hosted on the infield in the evenings, which included the likes of Post Malone and Ed Sheeran in recent years. Those concerts won't be happening this season, with Sukup Manufacturing now becoming the title sponsor - they also are the primary sponsor for Kirkwood's No.27 Andretti.
There have been many suggestions that this may be the last occasion that two races are held at Iowa - with Dixon recently stating on Conor Daly's podcast that it could be well the last visit completely that IndyCar makes to the circuit.
Iowa has been hosting IndyCar since 2007, just one year after the Speedway was constructed. It was removed from the calendar in 2021, before returning in it's double-header format the following season.
Recent Iowa history has been solely about Team Penske. The team have won eight of the last nine races at Iowa with the only blip to that record being in 2022 when O'Ward won for Arrow McLaren. Newgarden had dominated that race until he crashed out mid-way with a mechanical failure.
Newgarden's success at the circuit means he has been aptly named: 'The King of Corn Country.' The two-time champion has claimed Iowa victories in 2016, 2019, 2020, 2022 and claimed both races in 2023. Newgarden also has podium finishes in 2014, 2015 and 2024 as well as a further two top five finishes.
Team Penske have shared the spoils though as McLaughlin claimed his first oval victory in the opening race last year, whilst Power took home the second race after pouncing on a conveniently-timed caution. Simon Pagenaud was the other winner in the Penske streak, when he won in 2020.
Penske's recent dominance at Iowa has meant that O'Ward is the only other active driver to have won at the circuit. The Mexican has an outstanding record at Iowa and is the only driver who can seemingly compete with the Penske's on ovals on a regular basis. O'Ward will also make his 100th start should he see the green flag on Saturday.
Chip Ganassi Racing may be IndyCar's most dominant team, but they have not tasted victory at Iowa since Dario Franchitti won in 2009.
The race has also had both lap counts extended by 25 laps in the off-season, in order to promote further strategy options, which proved a success in Mid-Ohio last time out.
13 sets of Firestone tyres will be available throughout the weekend, with an extra set available for Friday's high-line session. Race 1 will be titled the Synk 275 whilst the second will be titled the Farm to Finish 275. This will mark the first Iowa race with the hybrid in use.
What to expect at Iowa
Simply put, this race is expected to be all about where you qualify. As usual, drivers will run two qualifying laps, with their first lap setting the grid for Race 1, with their second lap setting the grid for Race 2.
With overtaking expected to be so difficult outside of the starts and restarts, it is going to be pivotal for drivers on qualifying high up the order. Restarts may also be manic as they may provide the only realistic passing opportunity for drivers to move up the order. Expect chaos on pit road too as that will likely provide the best opportunity to improve your position.
There's been no hiding how disastrous 2025 has been for Team Penske. Power is the only driver in the team inside the top 10 in the championship and the history books are being opened to compare when Penske's form was this disastrous in years past. They currently are on their longest winless streak since 2007 to 2008 as they remain 11 winless since McLaughlin took the honours in Milwaukee.
There's also no better chance to end that run of form than at Iowa. As I mentioned earlier, they should have won the last nine races at the circuit, and little can lay a glove on how dominant they have been. The team showed very well at Gateway earlier on this season, before that race fell apart due to various reasons.
Newgarden in particular needs a very strong weekend. The two-time champion stands 20th in the championship, and has not finished in the top five since the opening round in St. Petersburg. Newgarden has not seen the chequered flag since Detroit and is in the worst form of his Team Penske career. Iowa has been a great source of success for him in previous seasons, and if he can't succeed here, well where can he succeed?
Power's future remains up-in-the-air for 2026 despite being the highest-placed Penske driver in the standings. With less-and-less races for the Australian to prove himself, a win this weekend would certainly help his chances at remaining in the No.12 for 2026.
McLaughlin was deemed as one of the pre-season favourites, but yet has not finished in the top 10 since the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. The Kiwi's form is starting to be cause for concern, particularly now he has dropped out the top 10 in the championship. McLaughlin's qualifying form on ovals since 2023 has been sensational, and he'll need to prove that again at Iowa.
Looking outside of Penske, O'Ward will be one of the favourites once again. The Mexican has never finished outside the top 10 at the venue, and claimed two podiums in 2022 as well as further podiums in 2023 and 2024. With Palou's championship a foregone conclusion, this poses an excellent chance for O'Ward to re-claim second in points.
This will remain a test for his teammate Lundgaard though. The Dane has been excellent on road and street courses thus far in 2025, but has not been up to the same pedigree on ovals, as was expected given his experience. To prove himself as one of the strongest drivers in the series, Lundgaard will need to show well this weekend.
David Malukas' form on ovals has been simply sensational in recent races. Malukas finished second at the Indianapolis 500 and was the closest challenger to Penske (albeit driving in a Penske-affiliated car) at Gateway. Malukas is seen as the heir to Power's No.12 car, and a maiden IndyCar victory this weekend is certainly on the cards.
That's certainly the case for his teammate, Santino Ferrucci too, who has been one of the strongest oval drivers in the series across the course of the last 18 months. Ferrucci was about the only driver who could make moves at Iowa last year, and claimed sixth place in Race 1.
If there weren't enough drivers to have a great shot at claiming their maiden win, count Conor Daly in too! Since joining Juncos Hollinger Racing, Daly has further excelled at ovals, and at times looked within a shot of claiming victory at Gateway and Indianapolis earlier this season. Daly famously claimed pole at Iowa in 2020 for IndyCar's smallest team in Carlin and could do something similar for Juncos - even backed by Will Buxton for this weekend.
Palou may be one of the best drivers in the world, and has an oval win under his belt now, but short tracks remain the Spaniard's one weakness. He has never won a short track, albeit does have two podiums at Iowa. There would be nothing more that Palou would love to do than shrug off short track racing as his weakness this weekend.
This also remains one of very few venues that his teammate, Dixon, has not won at, despite competing at every single IndyCar race at Iowa. However, Dixon has not finished outside the top six at Iowa since 2019 but has not found success at finding Victory Lane yet.
I have not mentioned much of Andretti Global in this preview, but that is because their record at Iowa is nothing to be proud of. The team have not claimed a podium in Corn Country since 2017, with last season being the first time since that they had a car finish in the top five when Colton Herta finished fifth in Race 2.
However, Kirkwood won at Gateway earlier this season, whilst Herta won at Nashville Superspeedway to close out 2024 - which mark the two most recent oval races outside of the Indianapolis 500. They may remain underdogs for the weekend, but you can't quite fully rule them out.
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing are ones to keep an eye on though for all the wrong reasons. At both oval events this year, Graham Rahal has effectively been a moving chicane, with the sister cars not faring too much better either. For several seasons the team have been incapable of finding a suitable oval package and it'll be interesting to see if they can turn that around this weekend.
Timings:
Installation Laps: 14:35 CT (20:35 BST) Friday
High-Line Session: 14:40 CT (20:40 BST) Friday
Practice: 15:30 CT (21:30 BST) Friday
Qualifying: 11:05 CT (17:30 BST) Saturday
Race 1: 16:20 CT (22:30 BST) Saturday
Race 2: 12:20 CT (18:20 BST) Sunday
DIVEBOMB will bring you all the news and updates throughout the weekend as well as post-race analysis. Will the racing at Iowa be better than expected? Can Team Penske's fortunes be turned around? Can we see a first time winner at Iowa? There's plenty to look out for at Iowa.
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