Iowa Corn Indy 250

[ACTF_ZETT]

Wow what a race, not exactly what I was expecting.

First of all, it is their first race at a new track so a more than average number of cautions is expected.

I dont understand some crew chiefs though. After you see Wheldon spin out on his own, you should make a mental note to take it easy. After Kanaan spins out on his own, you have got to be on the horn with your driver saying just keep the car in one piece, dont push the issue at all until the last laps.

Then they go out and go 4 wide on a restart and tear up 5 good cars. They then played Scott Sharps crew chief saying excatly that, but honostly I would have been telling my driver to just relax after the lap 1 caution.

I must say watching the race, I liked the track, but the fans did not get a great show. I dont know if there was no passing because it is the first race at the track, which is a common problem, but perhaps the progressive banking needed to be more than a 2 degree difference (I think it was 2 degrees).

I cant say that the big crash was Danica's fault, but you cant take all the blame away from her. She should of been able to catch her car there on the front straight, though she was heavily pinched going 4 wide.

Listen, I am all for getting more cars into the field, but Milka should not have been allowed to start this race. Maybe let her run a few laps to start the race, but she was definately a safety hazard.

Please to god get Paul Page back in the booth.

How many commercials can we have in a race? Give me a break. At least the side by side was back. I think there were 2 restarts that were missed because of a commercial break, that is unacceptable.

[RGM Fan]

It wasn't the track's problem, it was a rule problem. If you look at the wings the teams were running the IRL cars probably had as much down force as they do on road courses. The result was the drivers never had to lift. If you don't have to lift there is no way you can get any kind over taking advantage on another driver because there is no accelleration curve. You can't drive harder into the corner than someone else because you're flat out all the time. You can't get a run off the corner because your RPM band never moves.

The IRL should have specificed which wings the teams could run so teams would be limited on downforce and there would have been more skill and passing involved.

[libra65]

Damn this race really wrecked my pickems.

That race wrecked everything else too!!

[Mark in Oshawa]

Less wing would have made for better racing, and safer conditions, but I find the IRL tends to allow for setups that allow the same set of circumstances at a lot of tracks. They like pack racing, so at Texas and bigger tracks, the setups tend to allow for flat out runs. It just isn't a safe situation long term, but I guess the management of the series is happy with the racing they get. I personally don't like it as much, although I did like the visuals of the cars whipping around Iowa's tight corners. I think it makes for a better NASCAR track, but I did think with tinkering the show might be better here...

[Hoss Ghoul]

It wasn't the track's problem, it was a rule problem. If you look at the wings the teams were running the IRL cars probably had as much down force as they do on road courses. The result was the drivers never had to lift. If you don't have to lift there is no way you can get any kind over taking advantage on another driver because there is no accelleration curve. You can't drive harder into the corner than someone else because you're flat out all the time. You can't get a run off the corner because your RPM band never moves.

The IRL should have specificed which wings the teams could run so teams would be limited on downforce and there would have been more skill and passing involved.

I agree.

So why say it was "team orders" that prevented Marco from trying to pass Dario?

[RGM Fan]

I agree.

So why say it was "team orders" that prevented Marco from trying to pass Dario?

I think its both. Marco appeared quicker than Dario, I think most everyone will agree on that. So either he was faster than Dario and couldn't pass or he got team orders not to try to pass. Neither one is exactly a shining beacon of light for the IRL.

[NickFalzone]

I think its both. Marco appeared quicker than Dario, I think most everyone will agree on that. So either he was faster than Dario and couldn't pass or he got team orders not to try to pass. Neither one is exactly a shining beacon of light for the IRL.

Or he had exactly the same setup as Dario (Marco said in the post interview: "Dario did a great job setting up my car, identical to his"). He had a couple extra mph because of the tow, but essentially they were the same speed. Of course if you want to find a negative here, it's that Iowa was bad for passing. This is not new information, nor a guarantee of a bad race (see TMS this yr).