Power Sweeps Iowa Qualifying, One Shy of Mario Andretti's Record

The busy weekend at Iowa Speedway continued this morning with dual qualifying around the 0.875-mile tri-oval. Team Penske flexed their muscle once again, to the surprise of no one. The team swept the front row for both races as Josef Newgarden will start 2nd in both races.

"Massive, man," Power said. "I’m so stoked to get the Chevy Verizon 5G car two pole positions. I’ve been watching this race, and at the test I put a lot of effort into getting everything right for the qualifying runs and the race. I think the car is good. It’s going to be a pretty tough race with all the heat and a lot of tire degradation. We’ll see what we’ve got."

IndyCar used the simple format for qualifying that was debuted last year, which was very well received. Each driver got two timed laps around the track by themselves. Their time on the first lap determined their starting position for today's race, and their second lap time set their starting position for tomorrow's event.

Conor Daly will be a driver to watch this weekend as well. The Ed Carpenter Racing driver was 2nd in practice yesterday, then qualified 3rd for today's race and 4th for Race 2 tomorrow. Pato O'Ward rolls off in 4th today and will start 8th tomorrow. Scott McLaughlin qualified 5th and 6th5, as all three Penske cars will be tough to beat.

Two of the last three Iowa races have been won by Newgarden, who has simply dominated this place. He has three wins in total, two runner-up finishes, and has led 1,150 laps over the last seven races. No other driver in that time frame has even led a total of 100 laps here. A weekend sweep is certainly not out of the question for the Team Penske ace.

Penske has taken the reigns from Andretti Autosport as the team to beat at Iowa. The Captain's team has won five of the last six Iowa races, including three consecutive victories. In the last five races here, Penske as a team has led 1,158 total laps. The next-closest team is Arrow McLaren SP, who has led just 86 laps in those five races.

Another important aspect to consider is that the pole sitter has only won once in the 15 races at Iowa, and that came in the last race with Newgarden. Only one pole sitter has won this year, which came in the season-opening race. Of the other nine races, five of them have been won by the driver starting in 2nd position, which bodes well for Newgarden this weekend.

As good as Power has been, he knows his teammate will likely be his toughest competition. “It's a difficult race to win when Josef is in the game. He's had a very strong career at this track. I think he'll always be in the mix. But I've got the same car. Hopefully I can make it work.”

Dixon tied Mario for 2nd on the All-Time Wins list last weekend in Toronto, and will have two opportunities to take sole possession and inch even closer to AJ Foyt's record of 67 wins. Ironically enough, this is one of the few circuits where Dixon has never won.

Power is also winless at Iowa, which is somewhat surprising considering the achievements of these two veterans. Dixon and Power have combined to score 9 poles and 13 top-five finishes, but the champions have never won here in 28 starts. Each driver finished runner-up in once in the two races here last year.

While the goal is always victory lane, some drivers are focused on having a pair of good results. This is the case for Alex Palou, who is trying to win back-to-back championships. “We tested at Iowa a few weeks ago and Penske was strong,” Palou said. “It’s going to be tough. I’m looking forward to all the road courses, but then there’s places like Iowa where our target is not to win. It’s to finish both races in the top ten. Get through that weekend and push in the other ones.”

Palou will start 14th and 12th in the two races this weekend. Ganassi only has two wins at Iowa, when Dan Wheldon and Dario Franchitti went back-to-back in 2008 and 2009. Andretti has seven wins here but their last came in 2015 with Ryan Hunter-Reay. The only active drivers to have won here are Newgarden, Pagenaud, and Castroneves.

Colton Herta had a moment on his first qualifying lap and will start back in 17th today. He improved greatly on his 2nd lap and qualified 3rd for tomorrow’s race but he won’t get to start there. Herta said that the team plans to change engines in his No. 26 machine after today’s race, meaning he will start from the back of the field tomorrow.

Heat is also going to be a major concern this weekend, as drivers try to battle the elements without substantial airflow into the cockpit. There are some aids that they will have available to them, such as a cool shirt, side scoops, and helmet vents, but it won't solve everything.

“It’s going to be brutal, no matter what, cool shirt or not,” Herta said. “It’s going to be a tough one and it’s going to be interesting to see how the cars handle the heat. There may be a difference of 10 to 15 degrees between Race 1 and 2 and that’s going to make a big difference for car balance, so we might see guys go backwards.” That could mean sacrificing speed, as Daly pointed out.

"We don’t want to sacrifice any performance," the Ed Carpenter Racing driver said. "I don’t want to give away performance but it’s going to be awful in the car. So we are planning to have the cool shirt available, but if we go out there and all of a sudden the balance is off, we’ll rip that sucker out of there."

With starting positions for both races now solidified, the only thing left to do is race. Coverage for tonight's 250-lap race begins at 4 PM ET on NBC. Teams and drivers will be aiming for a clean night, as they will have to do it all over again in less than 24 hours. The 300-lap event tomorrow is the only item on the agenda for the series. Coverage for Sunday's race starts at 3 PM on NBC.