NEWTON, Iowa — It was a 90-minute practice for the NTT IndyCar Series at Iowa Speedway on Friday, but there may have been more questions than answers afterward.
The 27-car lineup that will compete in this weekend’s Hy-Vee IndyCar Race Weekend at Iowa Speedway is faced with a different track surface at the seven-eighths mile short oval than in previous years.
For the first time, there was a NASCAR Cup Series race at the NASCAR-owned Iowa Speedway on June 16. NASCAR officials decided to repave the lower two lanes of the track in turns 1 and 2 and also in turns 3 and 4. The upper lanes were the older track surface.
That created two different grip levels and ultimately created a potentially hazardous situation for any drivers that ventured into the gray.
Scott McLaughlin, the fastest driver in the session, also had issues in the newly paved area of the track when he spun in the final moments of practice. He also did not hit anything.
McLaughlin’s fastest speed was 185.891 miles per hour in the No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet followed by Alex Palou’s No. 10 Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing at 184.536 mph.
Last week’s Mid-Ohio winner, Pato O’Ward, was third at 184.154 mph in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet followed by David Malukas in the No. 66 Arrow McLaren Honda for Meyer Shank Racing at 184.112 mph.
Alexander Rossi of Arrow McLaren rounded out the top five at 183.784 mph in the No. 7 Chevrolet.
The fastest driver in practice explained his end-of-practice slide.
“Just a pure driver problem,” McLaughlin said. “I was trying to drive it up the fence a little bit, and try the outside line, but there were a lot of marbles up there.
“It’s a shame, but I don’t think you can go up there. It’s going to be tough.
“It’s IndyCar as well, we’ll put on a show for everyone yet.
Scott Dixon, who makes his 20th start at Iowa Speedway this weekend and has competed in every IndyCar race at the seven-eighths-of-a-mile oval, gave his thoughts.
“It’s going to be pretty tough to use it,” Dixon said. “There is too much of a difference right now. Maybe another high-line practice it would work right now, but I don’t know how keen they are at doing that.”
Just 20 minutes into the session, Marcus Ericsson of Andretti Global had more problems in his 2024 season when he hit the entry of turn 3 and the car swapped ends and slammed into the outside wall. He was taken to the infield care center where he was examined and released.
“It did, very early, it snapped around,” Ericsson said. “The car felt great. It was super comfortable. Just really frustrating.
“This is it for practice. The other car has only run a couple of laps. I feel bad for the guys, but anything can happen in these cars.”
With 25 minutes left in the session, Katherine Legge in the No. 51 E.L.F. Honda tried to avoid Christian Lundgaard’s slower car. She got into the gray area of turn 3 and immediately lost traction and spun. Legge was able to avoid contact, but the yellow light was turned on for caution.
With seven minutes left in the session, Agustin Canapino spun in turn 2 and washed up the track, nearly into the path of teammate Romain Grosjean, who got on the brakes to avoid a crash.
During the caution, Scott Dixon was heading into the wrong pit box when he saw the Arrow McLaren machine and pulled into Canapino’s path as he was entering pit lane. The two cars collided on pit lane, but Dixon was able to eventually get the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda serviced and return to the track.
“I’m really happy with the day,” Canapino said. “We were really fast. Unfortunately, I made a mistake on the track. I think we have a good chance to do well in the race.
“Will Power was slowing a lot. I don’t know what happened there. I don’t know what Scott Dixon was doing. I don’t know. He was confused or something.”
Dixon admitted he got the two Juncos Hollinger cars confused.
“We pitted behind their sister car and I thought it was Romain Grosjean’s car,” Dixon said. “Luckily, we were slow speed there and had a little touch.
“The car had decent speed, and hopefully, we’ll be in a good spot.”