IndyCar

Winners and losers from IndyCar's Iowa double-header

by Jack Benyon
6 min read

While there weren't many overtakes on a repaved Iowa oval hosting the debut of IndyCar's new hybrid, it wasn't short of storylines impacting the championship with six to go.

The repaving and the hybrid's oval debut dominated the pre-event headlines but following the double-header it's all about the championship leader proving he is not a robot and having his lead shrunk and two Penske winners - one a first-time victor on an oval, the other getting his first oval win since 2019 - keeping the pressure on.

We've picked out the biggest winners and losers from the Iowa weekend. Let us know in the comments if we got it right or if we missed someone.

Winners: Palou's rivals

It was a sterling weekend for a handful of drivers who must have watched with glee as Alex Palou, in the first race, first had a stall in the pitlane and then spun very late at Turn 4 to end a day in 23rd.

Will Power’s strategic triumph in race two also stopped Palou from rebounding fully by grabbing a first oval win the following day.

Point swings against Palou

Will Power +13
Pato O'Ward +18
Scott Dixon +14
Scott McLaughlin +39

With six races to go and four of them on ovals, a first oval win for Palou might have been a death blow for the others’ confidence, but they live to fight another day and can rest easy in the knowledge that the Spaniard is human, on a weekend where his compatriots at Wimbledon and in the European Championships showed no such sign of faltering.

Of the three ovals coming up on the calendar Palou and Pato O'Ward have raced on only one, whereas Power and Scott Dixon have done all of them. We're in for a fascinating end to the season.

Losers: IndyCar at Iowa

Admittedly, how you gauge the quality of a race event can prove extremely subjective.

On one hand, the winner of five of the last seven Iowa races, Newgarden, didn’t win either race here, we got two different winners and a nice swing in the championship points.

But the Iowa track has been neutered by a repave that changed the grip dynamic and made running two-wide near impossible unless it was on a restart after the track had been swept. 

 "I don't know who decided to do this change, they ruined a fantastic race," said Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward.

The tyres didn’t degrade that much even in the hottest race on Sunday, so there was little movement there. The races were won with qualifying, strategy and pitstops as much as anything else.

That’s not to take away from the winners, but this was a poor event on track.

The new hybrid appeared to have very little impact, too, other than the - admittedly few - reliability issues it caused.

You didn’t really hear drivers talking about the impact of the unit at all on track. That's fixable once the device is more tested, it’s just a shame it can’t be maximised now when intrigue in it is at its highest.

Winner: Scott McLaughlin

His race one victory and a third in race two was a much-needed pick-me-up for McLaughlin, who now believes he can truly call himself an IndyCar driver after winning on an oval. Not sure what that says for the likes of Colton Herta and Palou!

It was a big target for McLaughlin to win on an oval this year, having come as close as just one corner away in the past.

McLaughlin heaped praise on his new advisor Simon Pagenaud for his role in his oval improvement including the Indy 500 pole, and with Penske being so strong on ovals generally this could really be the start of the next phase of McLaughlin’s IndyCar competitiveness.

If he can add a bit more consistency, he’ll be the whole package.

It's worth noting that without the push-to-pass scandal at St Petersburg McLaughlin would be right up there in the mix with Power and thus snapping on Palou's heels even more.

Loser: Andretti Autosport

Herta did get a few points closer to Alex Palou, and Marcus Ericsson bagged another top-10, but ultimately this was a rough weekend for the team.

Herta was on pole for race one but bad luck sent him tumbling down the order as he was in the pits when a caution came out for Palou's crash. Then Herta had to pull off the save of the season.

Fifth and 11th was a good recovery but given he had a pole and had been fastest in the test coming in, it’s likely a disappointment for him and the team.

Kyle Kirkwood cruelly lost a top-10 after spinning on the last lap of race two avoiding the Robb crash, and Ericsson had an extremely slow pitstop in the same race which put him multiple laps down. He ended up 23rd, breaking a five-race top-10 run.

Winner: Santino Ferrucci

Ferrucci’s target over the last eight races was to take a top 10 in the championship and he’s moved into that spot with six races to go. It’s a huge chance for the AJ Foyt team.

It’s made some big hires behind the scenes in the last two years and, in combination with a Team Penske tie-up, it has reaped the benefits, meaning it's on course for its highest championship finish since 2010.

Ferrucci’s been a big part of that as his team-mate Sting Ray Robb is 105 points behind.

Speaking of Robb, it was great to hear he was swiftly discharged from hospital after he hit the slowing car of Alexander Rossi and performed a terrifying barrel roll.

Loser: Felix Rosenqvist and Meyer Shank

Felix Rosenqvist was ninth in the championship heading to Iowa but left it 11th in the standings. His fairytale form at the start of the season seems a long time ago now.

He had been in the top five in the second race but an as yet unconfirmed mechanical issue took him out of contention after a slow pitstop and places lost on the restart had already hurt his chances earlier on.

The team’s other car, driven by David Malukas, had been robbed of two top-1os after a puncture on his return at Laguna Seca and a stall in the pits at Mid-Ohio after qualifying third. But his race one, Turn 1 crash here all on his own was not his finest moment. He apologised for it.

He was 13th in race two, with every little point being crucial for this team’s fight to be in the top 22 in the standings, which awards cash at the end of the year.

Winner: Rinus VeeKay

An under-the-radar weekend for a driver who has really struggled in 2024, but just at the time when free agency is hotting up, Rinus VeeKay had a double top 10 with fifth and ninth at Iowa. His oval expert team owner Ed Carpenter was 20th and 22nd respectively, involved in incidents but already way back in the pack by then.

VeeKay’s shown signs of promise at Iowa before but this is a big result that adds 50 points to his tally, which was only 125 before the weekend. It will be interesting to see if this helps move him forward in the driver market queue.

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