IndyCar: Friday Update From Iowa Speedway

Good afternoon from Iowa Speedway, nestled in the corn fields.  On tap today is practice for both the IndyCar drivers and the INDY NXT drivers.

Temperatures will be in the upper 70s today for the afternoon practice session for the IndyCars and the INDY NXT cars.

Coming onto the infield today was impressive to see all the multi-level suites that have been added this year to the infield and the outside turns by the sponsor, HyVee.

AR1 was talking with Christian Lundgaard, winner of the Toronto race, whose main sponsor is HyVee on his Rahal Letterman Lanigan No 45 Honda.  The smiling Dane informed us that roughly 9,000 employees of HyVee will be attending this race and using the new suites.

This weekend is the only double-header weekend for the NTT INDYCAR Series.

Meyer Shanks’s Helio Castroneves holds the qualifying record for this track of 17.2283 seconds, 186.809 MPH, from July 11, 2014.

AR1 spoke with the Brazilian this morning regarding the weekend.

“When we tested here last month, we noticed the tire deg was different from last year, the bumps seem to be a little bit rougher than last year.  But the good thing is it is the same for everyone.”

“I don’t think the hour and a half of practice is not long enough.  At least we did have a day of laps testing.  That will sure help us to not get lost.”

“I am not sure what the tire deg was about.  I think Firestone added something to the tires after that test.  So the tire might be better than at the test.”

Castroneves mentioned the fact that this used to be a night race and that he would love to see that return.  “I would love to see this race be run under the lights which would be better for the fans.  We have sure a better start under the lights.”

There will only be one practice session for the weekend which will happen today at 3:30 pm for the hour and a half.

We will keep you up to date on the track activities.

Indy NXT Practice 1 Results

(R) Rookie

Lucille Dust reporting live from Iowa Speedway