By David Morgan, Associate Editor
NEWTON, Iowa – The Hy-Vee IndyCar Weekend at Iowa Speedway is officially underway.
In the lone practice session of the weekend leading into the Saturday/Sunday doubleheader on the 0.894-mile oval in Central Iowa saw drivers get their first look at the partially repaved surface to try and dial their cars in for the remainder of the weekend.
Scott McLaughlin, who ran second in the first race of the weekend in Iowa last season, struck the first blow of the 2024 Iowa weekend by putting his No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet at the top of the board at 185.891 mph.
Alex Palou finished the session second fastest, followed by the most recent winner in the NTT IndyCar Series in Pato O’Ward in third. David Malukas and Alexander Rossi would round out the top-five fastest drivers.
The remainder of the top-10 went to Scott Dixon, Agustin Canapino, Linus Lundqvist, Colton Herta, and Will Power.
Defending Iowa winner, Josef Newgarden, who swept both races last season and has won five of the last seven races here finished practice in 15th place.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for McLaughlin though as he spun in the last two minutes of practice when he lost control of his car in the high line off Turn 4, but was able to come away unscathed, keeping his car off the wall.
“That just proves to kids growing up, don’t give up if you’re spinning,” McLaughlin said of the incident with a laugh. “I thought I could let it go, but I was going into the wall and tried to drive it off the fence a little but and just kept going.
“The XPEL Chevy feels good, but I just needed to try that outside line. There’s a lot of marbles up there, man. It’s a shame. I think we’ll put on a good show, but as the run gets on, it’s like glass up there. It’s nice to find out today instead of tomorrow.”
Aside from McLaughlin’s spin, the session was stopped on three other occasions for caution.
The first of which came when when Marcus Ericsson crashed within the first 10 minutes of practice. The driver of the No. 28 Andretti Global Honda Lost control entering Turn 3 and slid up the track into the outside wall, causing significant damage to his car.
Prior to the crash, he was fifth fastest on the board at 179.694 mph. Given the damage, it will be a long night ahead of getting car turned around for qualifying and race on Saturday.
“As soon as I turned in, the rear came around,” Ericsson said. “Really strange. We did the whole test here and had zero rear security and we had the high line practice and the car felt great. It was super comfortable. It came a bit out of left field. Really frustrating…
“It’s a massive setback, so sorry for the 28 guys. They’ve done a good job. We’re definitely going to have to fight from there, but anything can happen on this track. We’re going to come back strong tomorrow.”
In the final 30 minutes of the session, Katherine Legge spun to bring out the second caution of the day. She was able to keep her car off the wall after getting loose in the high line while trying to pass a slower car. No harm, no foul as she came to a stop in the infield grass.
Likewise for Agustin Canapino, who looped his No. 78 Juncos Hollinger Chevrolet off Turn 2 in the closing minutes of practice. He was able to keep his car off the wall and make his way back to pit road.
Once back on pit road, Canapino and Dixon had a run-in when Dixon attempted to drive around Canapino’s slow car just as Canapino made a left turn to his pit box, causing the two to collide. Both were able to continue on without any apparent damage.
The two shook hands and had a laugh about it afterwards, with Dixon explaining it was a simple miscue on his part that led to the collision.
“We’re pitted right behind their sister car. I thought it was Grosjean and he was going extremely slow, so I thought we were going to be able to swing by on the inside and obviously his pit was right there,” Dixon said.
“It was all at slow speed, so nothing chaotic there. We had a little touch.”
One Groove or Two?
In the half-hour prior to the originally scheduled 90-minute practice session, drivers took to the track in a high-line session in an effort to rubber in the upper groove on the partially repaved track. The hope being that it will help to spur more two groove racing throughout the remainder of the weekend.
Whether or not that ultimately becomes the case remains to be seen, but drivers were unconvinced of its efficacy when the checkered flag flew on the afternoon of running on the hybrid of new and old pavement.
“It’s going to be an option, but it’s going to be tough,” McLaughlin said of the upper groove. “Ultimately, we’ve got to qualify well and see where we’re at. But this is IndyCar, if you have a tire advantage or whatever, things can happen. The race can go off its head, so I have no doubt we’ll put on an awesome show for everyone here.
“It was nice to experiment on a day like today.”
Meanwhile, Dixon was reminiscing of the old pavement that provided some of the best races at Iowa in recent years.
“With the repave, partial repave, that they’ve done, it’s has taken away a lot of race ability that we had. Maybe it’s better for other categories,” Dixon said.
“Yeah, I miss last year’s track. I think drivers refer to it as character. It had a lot of character. It had a lot of bumps. It was definitely hard work. Qualifying was very tough. Then obviously you had the use of two, three, four lanes in the race, especially on restarts and things like that.
“We’ll see. I hope it gets back to that. Whether it’s this weekend, it’s going to be tough to get that second lane to come in.”
Next up for the NTT IndyCar Series contenders in the Hawkeye State is qualifying for both the Hy-Vee Homefront 250 and Hy-Vee One Step 250 at 3:45 pm ET on Saturday on Peacock
The first race of the doubleheader, the Hy-Vee Homefront 250, is scheduled for an 8:06 pm ET green flag on Saturday night, followed by the second race, the Hy-Vee One Step 250, going green at 12:30 pm ET. Both races will be televised on NBC/Peacock.
Hy-Vee IndyCar Weekend at Iowa Practice Results
| Rank | Car | Driver Name | C/E/T | Time | Speed |
| 1 | 3 | McLaughlin, Scott | D/C/F | 00:17.3134 | 185.891 |
| 2 | 10 | Palou, Alex | D/H/F | 00:17.3465 | 185.536 |
| 3 | 5 | O’Ward, Pato | D/C/F | 00:17.4767 | 184.154 |
| 4 | 66 | Malukas, David | D/H/F | 00:17.4807 | 184.112 |
| 5 | 7 | Rossi, Alexander | D/C/F | 00:17.5119 | 183.784 |
| 6 | 9 | Dixon, Scott | D/H/F | 00:17.5275 | 183.620 |
| 7 | 78 | Canapino, Agustin | D/C/F | 00:17.5278 | 183.617 |
| 8 | 8 | Lundqvist, Linus (R) | D/H/F | 00:17.5748 | 183.126 |
| 9 | 26 | Herta, Colton | D/H/F | 00:17.5903 | 182.964 |
| 10 | 12 | Power, Will | D/C/F | 00:17.5965 | 182.900 |
| 11 | 15 | Rahal, Graham | D/H/F | 00:17.6083 | 182.777 |
| 12 | 60 | Rosenqvist, Felix | D/H/F | 00:17.6274 | 182.579 |
| 13 | 14 | Ferrucci, Santino | D/C/F | 00:17.6570 | 182.273 |
| 14 | 21 | VeeKay, Rinus | D/C/F | 00:17.6728 | 182.110 |
| 15 | 2 | Newgarden, Josef | D/C/F | 00:17.7312 | 181.511 |
| 16 | 6 | Siegel, Nolan (R) | D/C/F | 00:17.7627 | 181.189 |
| 17 | 30 | Fittipaldi, Pietro | D/H/F | 00:17.7928 | 180.882 |
| 18 | 27 | Kirkwood, Kyle | D/H/F | 00:17.8313 | 180.492 |
| 19 | 45 | Lundgaard, Christian | D/H/F | 00:17.8666 | 180.135 |
| 20 | 77 | Grosjean, Romain | D/C/F | 00:17.9089 | 179.710 |
| 21 | 28 | Ericsson, Marcus | D/H/F | 00:17.9104 | 179.694 |
| 22 | 18 | Harvey, Jack | D/H/F | 00:17.9136 | 179.662 |
| 23 | 11 | Armstrong, Marcus | D/H/F | 00:17.9261 | 179.537 |
| 24 | 51 | Legge, Katherine | D/H/F | 00:18.0276 | 178.526 |
| 25 | 41 | Robb, Sting Ray | D/C/F | 00:18.1041 | 177.772 |
| 26 | 4 | Simpson, Kyffin (R) | D/H/F | 00:18.3339 | 175.544 |
| 27 | 20 | Carpenter, Ed | D/C/F | 00:18.4823 | 174.134 |
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