The is an
Indy Racing League IndyCar Series race held at the
Iowa Speedway in
Newton, Iowa on June 24th, 2007 for the first time.
The first
Championship Car race in Iowa took place on
July 9 , 1915.
AAA held a 100-mile race at
Tri-State Fair Grounds in
Burlington, Iowa , won by
Bob Burman . Additional AAA races were held at Des Moines Speedway in
Valley Junction , a one-mile wooden board track. Only two championship car races, won by
Ralph Mulford and
Ralph DePalma respectively, were held at Des Moines, as the track closed and was dismantled shortly thereafter.
Practice scheduled for Friday was shortened due to thunderstorms in the area. Despite lack of Friday practice, many drivers expressed awe at the 7/8th mile track for being so fast, with practice speeds averaging over 180 mph. Drivers originally believed that it would be a competitive race, but soon found out that passing would be very difficult. The other main concern of the track was the physical requirements, with the 7/8th mile track driving like a
Superspeedway and drivers experiencing 4.8 latteral G-Forces during the race.
Scott Dixon won the pole in qualifying on Saturday (182.360 mph/17.6486 secs). Hello Castroneves qualified 2nd (182.272 mph/17.6571 secs), while
Danica Patrick came in 11th (180.974 mph/17.7838 secs).
The first half of the race was a "crashfest" with 7 cars crashing out in the first 100 laps. The largest crash occurred on a restart on lap 100, when cars tried to go 4 wide on the frontstrech.
Danica Patrick ,
Sam Hornish Jr. , and others were eliminated. Many driver's blamed the hard tires of the race. This was caused because of an unusually cool day, with temperatures around 75 degrees for the race, originally forecasted as late as the night before the race around 90-95 degrees. Pole sitter
Scott Dixon had steering problems at the start, and originally retired, though his team repaired the car and he ended up 10th, many laps down. The race ended up a battle between Andretti-Green Teammates
Dario Franchitti and
Marco Andretti , with Franchitti winning.
Scott Sharp came in third.
