Two things were learned from the first NTT IndyCar Series race at the partially-repaved Iowa Speedway: it was difficult to pass, and some of the best drivers in IndyCar ran into trouble on the .875-mile track.
While Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin took his first-career IndyCar win on an oval, others behind the Thirsty Threes were not so fortunate as their days were ended byeither wrecks or penalties.
The first salvo of trouble wouldn’t take long to fire.
Trouble struck early in turn 2 of lap one as both Juncos-Hollinger racing drivers of Agustin Canapino in the No. 78 and Romain Grosjean in the No. 77 Chevrolets as well as the No. 45 Hy-Vee Honda of Christian Lundgaard were collected by the No. 66 Honda of David Malukas drifting up the track.
Malukas took the blame for the opening lap wreck.
“A rookie mistake from my side,” Malukas told Frontstretch. “I really shouldn’t be doing that at this point in my racing career. I just lost the car. I didn’t anticipate the check up. I ended up just going over the apron. Obviously, first lap tires were cold. That was on me. So, I feel sorry for the guys. That was just really dumb.
“It’s really frustrating. For whole debut race to go back out and first lap to lose it like that, it was really really stupid. So like I said, it’s frustrating. It’s annoying. I want to beat myself up for it.”
Both JHR drivers declined to comment to Frontstretch.
Malukas made his 2024 oval debut on Saturday after missing much of the season’s beginning while recovering from an offseason injury. He raced in 2022 and 2023 full-time with Dale Coyne Racing and was a star at the ovals, most-notably a fourth at Texas Motor Speedway in 2023 and a runner-up result at Gateway in 2022.
For a driver who finished eighth and 12th last year in Corn Country to wreck on the first lap set the tone for many other drivers to have difficult days across the board.
Championship leader Alex Palou fell behind on the first pit stop of the day after stalling for the second consecutive week, sending him to 19th. Palou started to chip away at the competition, as he was one of only few cars that looked capable passing consistently during his fight back to the front.
Unfortunately for the Spaniard, he lost the car on the frontstretch before final pit stops, taking the points leader out and allowing contending drivers with much better points days like Pato O’Ward, Scott Dixon and Colton Herta to make up important ground in the points.
“I just lost it,” Palou told Frontstretch. “It was like 85-lap tires. So, I tried to get around the [No.] 6 car heading into turn one and just lost it. So it was an unacceptable driver mistake for the second time that race.
“The stall was just didn’t feel like it hit first gear. With the hybrid now, it’s very tough to feel it, and it went twice into second gear. So obviously, I really [couldn’t] move the car in second gear.”
The damage left Palou to end the day early in 23rd.
His closest championship contender, Will Power, joined him as a driver with problems as he incurred a speeding penalty due to pressing the wrong button in the pits. The Aussie’s finish of 18th did little to help bridge the gap to Palou for the No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet team.
“I just unclicked a button accidentaly,” Power said. “Tough penalty.”
Power missed out on gaining valuable ground on the points, but he acknowledged that things weren’t as bad as they could’ve been.
“It’s not as bad as could be,” Power continued. “[It] brings a lot more people to the championship, but we’ll see what happens from here on out.”
One of the biggest factors in the race were drivers making hairline mistakes on restarts.
Three drivers, Santino Ferrucci, Katherine Legge and Linus Lundqvist were nabbed with restart violations throughout the day. Ferrucci was able to overcome the penalty that was upgraded to a stop-and-go penalty for failing to follow IndyCar instruction as he battled back from being two laps down to finish sixth.
On the other hand, Legge could muster 17th while Lundqvist’s day would go from bad to worse with a hybrid failure later on.
Ferrucci and Legge weren’t the biggest fans of the calls.
“Let’s be honest, we should have just been sitting P2 all day, fighting for the lead with McLaughlin and for the win,” Ferrucci said. “Tough mistake on the restart. I guess I got out of line. Definitely going to go back and look at that because I’m pretty good at those things. I feel bad for the team. I was really flustered. Larry [Foyt] talked to me on the radio, put me back in my headspace, and we just drove the freaking… out of that thing.”
“The penalty for pulling out of line before it went green I dispute honestly, and I’m going to have to go back and watch the video because I did not move out of line until my spotter threw the green,” Legge said. “So, I think there’s been a few other people who have said the same thing. So, I need to make sure that I look at it and I am accurate about that, but that’s how I feel. We had a really fast car, and I think it could’ve easily been a top 12 if there wasn’t things like that.
The most bizarre failure was of Graham Rahal, who suffered a broken wheel coming off of turn four, something he said has never happened to him in his career.
“We had a wheel that actually broke,” Rahal said. “Of the six spokes, five of them broke. So we’re lucky that one held on, and that was that, but it was incredibly disappointing. We thought our car had pace. That whole first stint, we were just cruising around, taking our time, and then, it shattered, and I’ve never had that before. So, a little bit shocking for me.”
Where the weekend’s first race lacked in passing compared to previous races, it picked up in drama with some of IndyCar’s best being taken out of contention for the win by mistakes and penalties. The start time being 12 p.m. ET for Race 2 means drivers will have a short tur-around period to prepare to face Iowa in much hotter conditions.
About the author
Wyatt Watson has followed NASCAR closely since 2007. He joined Frontstretchas a journalist in February 2023 after serving in the United States Navy for five years as an Electronic Technician Navigation working on submarines. Wyatt writes breaking NASCAR news and contributes to columns such as Friday Faceoff and 2-Headed Monster. Wyatt also contributes to Frontstretch's social media and serves as an at-track reporter, collecting exclusive content for Frontstretch.
Wyatt Watson can be found on Twitter @WyattGametime
A daily email update (Monday through Friday) providing racing news, commentary, features, and information from Frontstretch.com
We hate spam. Your email address will not be sold or shared with anyone else.