Cooling inside of the cockpit was an issue IndyCar attempted to address with the air scoop. The next step will be finding a way to filter the debris and particles from traveling through the scoop into the cockpit.
“I think it was good, short of putting a bunch of sand in the car,” Dixon said. “I’ve never been so dirty in my life. We never really tried it. I think only Felix Rosenqvist maybe did, and he thought there was a little more air.
“But IndyCar is doing a hell of a job to try and fix things on the run, which even to produce these things and make them in the fashion and the time frame that they’re doing, they’re doing a fantastic job. But I think it’s kind of driver opinions, where you sit and which bents that you have and things like that, but I didn’t think it was needed tonight.
“I think what IndyCar has done with the aeroscreen, it’s made it a lot safer, made IndyCar a lot safer, made the sport a lot safer, and we’ve got to keep pushing, and it’s great to see it working as well as it has for the season.”
Pagenaud was the race winner and believes the more air flow into the cockpit, the better for the driver.
This will be especially important because this year’s delayed 104th Indianapolis 500 is currently scheduled for Aug. 23, when it is typically very hot and humid in Indianapolis.
It was also very hot and humid at Iowa Speedway for both races this past weekend.
“I thought this was an added layer of airflow into the cockpit,” Pagenaud said of the scoop. “I thought it was great handling as long as everybody runs it. As long as everybody runs it, you’re not going to feel something different.
“It’s my opinion the more air, the better. Obviously tonight was not too hot, so you’re not supposed to be hot in the race car. It’s under yellow that it gets actually the hottest, but if it was during the day, it would have been tougher. However, it’s an improvement, and IndyCar is really on it.”
Josef Newgarden won the second Iowa IndyCar 250 Saturday night in a contest that was rather straightforward, without any incidents.
Newgarden believes the next step in the cooling process isn’t forcing air into the cockpit but getting the stagnant air out of the cockpit to provide better airflow.
“I think some of the issues they’re running into is we’ve been trying to force air in, but we’re not getting air out,” Newgarden said. “I think the main issue now is trying to extract air from the cockpit. Is it a terrible environment? No, it’s not a terrible environment. Is it ideal? It’s not ideal. Just kind of in the middle right now of quality as far as the airflow.
“The reason I went through that is because it depends on the track and it depends on the temperature outside. If it’s a cooler day like at Road America, it’s a long straightaway, you don’t pick up as much grit from the racetrack like you do here at Iowa, there’s not any big problems,” he continued. “I don’t think anyone had major issues at Road America. It’s on days like the GP of Indy where it’s 95, 98 degrees out that it’s too hot and you’re not getting enough airflow in at that point.
“I think what we’re going to find here it’s not getting more air into the car, it’s more pulling air out of it. Yeah, there’s still things that need to be better. I think that’s what we need to work on. I wasn’t a big fan of the scoop this weekend. I didn’t think that was a positive. But that’s also okay. We test things like that to see if it is a positive or not. My opinion is it wasn’t the right direction. I think we need to do something different.”
That is the key to the aeroscreen project – it’s a continuing process. Some things will work while others need to be tweaked.
Expect more changes to be made, according to Team Penske President Tim Cindric.
“We need to continue to explore that front,” Cindric told SPEED SPORT. “We need to continue to explore how to get air in and out of that. Drivers are adapting, but we can continue to put more effort into sorting that out. The good news is, you saw Friday night how important the aeroscreen is to things that can happen. It’s been a good success that we can race day, night and have tear-offs sorted out.
“The glass portion of it has proven to be very positive though.”