2016 Iowa Corn 300
Newton Iowa is located 30 miles to the east of Des Moines along Interstate 80 and is the home of the Maytag Washing Machine Corporation. It’s also the home of the Iowa Motor Speedway. Last Saturday, July 9th, the IndyCar boys gathered there for the tenth race of the season. The Iowa track is a banked mile track and is actually the shortest distance track in the series. The race goes for 300 very quick laps. This race was the 10th anniversary of the Iowa Corn 300 and it has been a very successful franchise for the series.
Series points leader Simon Pagenand started from the pole in his #22 Day-Glo yellow Penske Dallara Chevy.Along side of him was young Josef Newgarden. The same Newgarden who had been seriously injured in the aborted Texas 600 and was driving with a steel pin in his clavicle and a wrapped broken hand in Ed Carpenter’s #21 Fuzzy’s Vodka Dallara Chevy. The young driver had been runner up in the previous two Iowa races. Defending champ Ryan Hunter-Reay who had won the previous two Iowa races started a distant 20th in the field. Rookie Max Chilton started 4th. Chilton won the Indy Lights race here last year. Red hot Penske driver Will Power, winner of the previous two races was starting from 8th spot. The top 8 starting spots all went to Chevy drivers. Russian born Mikhail Aleshin driving for Sam Schmidt started 9th in his Honda powered Dallara.
When the green flag fell it became obvious very early that Newgarden had “THE CAR.” The 25-year-old Tennessean took the lead on the first lap and held throughout. If the #21 Fuzzy’s Vodka car held up, it was going to be a race for second place for the rest of the field. By lap 100 Newgarden had lapped everyone but Pagenand in second place. On lap 108, Hunter-Reay brought out the first caution when his engine flamed out. Helio Castroneves, who had been running in third place, lost two laps in a pit stop under yellow and was never in contention again.
Newgarden drove a masterful, dominating race, leading 284 laps, an Iowa race record. Late in the race, after the last round of pit stops Scott Dixon made a charge for the lead but Newgarden was able to hold him off and maintain his two and half second advantage. In the last five laps, Will Power made a bold move for second place and passed Pagenand and Dixon to claim the runner-up spot. Josef Newgarden won his first race of the year and his 3rd career victory. Power was 2nd, Dixon 3rd, Pagenand 4th, and Aleshin was the top finishing Honda in 5th, and rookie Alexander Rossi had his best finish since winning the Indy 500 with a 6th.
With his 4th place and his pole, Pagenand was able to keep his hold on 1st place in the championship points standings. Newgarden has moved into 2nd, and Power is now in 3rd place There are 6 races left in the 2016 series including two of the 500 mile races. Honda engines have only one win so far this year; Rossi’s Indy 500 win. Honda drivers have taken 2 poles. Once again Chevy is dominating. The next race is at Toronto this coming Sunday, July 17th, for the Honda Indy Toronto at the Exhibition Place road course.
As usual there are lots of rumors floating around concerning drivers, cars, and race tracks. Josef Newgarden’s contract with Ed Carpenter Racing is up at the end of this season. The word is, that both Penske and Ganassi Racing covet the services of the young Tennessee born driver. But who would go to make room for him on the two top teams in the IndyCar series? It’s whispered that Tony Kanaan is on the hot seat at Ganassi and, believe it or not, Penske after 17 years may cut ties with Helio Castroneves at the end of 2016. The 3-time Indy 500 winner hasn’t scored a win for the team in over 2 years and the Captain has a crowded garage with 4 drivers notorious for his “what-have-you-done-for-us-lately” attitude with his drivers. Stranger things have happened.
An NBA Legend Retires
After 19 NBA seasons with the San Antonio Spurs, 40 year old Tim Duncan is retiring. The native of the U.S. Virgin Islands played his college basketball at Wake Forrest and was twice the AAC player of the year. He stayed for his full 4 year eligibility with the Deacons and was the national college player of the year in 1997. Duncan was the NBA’s number one pick in 1997. The 6’ 11” 250 pounder played center and power forward for the Spurs and was the NBA Rookie of the Year in the 1997-98 season. He helped lead the team to 5 NBA championships and was twice the NBA’s MVP. He was named to the U.S. Men’s Olympic Basketball team at the Athens Games in 2004. He was regarded as an unselfish teammate and won the Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year Award in 2015. He is a shoo-in to be named to the NBA Hall of Fame. He is already a member of the College Basketball Hall of Fame — Wake Forrest retired his famous number #21 and it’s more than likely that the Spurs will do the same. Best of luck and continued success in you post-pro career Mr. Duncan!
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