iowa corn 300

[captjohn67]

22-31 (+11.72)

so now we head to Newton, IA for a 300 lap event ( 262.5 miler), rather than all the previous 250's. The Andretti camp has won 5 of the previous 7 events held here, with Ganassi picking up the other two. I always like night racing, but i don't love this track. Mental note that there were only 10 cars left on the lead lap last year...things can get away from you quickly when you're posting 17 second laps.

[video=youtube;FXFOFRaF9aI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXFOFRaF9aI[/video]

Kanaan - 4 podiums in his last four here, with the previous three being trash -- have to imagine he is pissed the way things shook out in Pocono, but that's the way things shake out when you make dumbass decisions on your race strategy.

Marco - 4 podiums in 7 attempts with a 6.28 avg

Saavedra, Kimball and Newgarden have never qualified or finished well here...on the hopeful fade list

Carpenter - surprisingly poor 10.33 avg in 6 efforts with no podiums

Helio - 7.42 avg in 7

Dixon - take away a piss poor 16th last year and you have a 5.33 avg. Strong race at Pocono and a good run here could possibly turn around a lackluster year??

Hunter-Reay - man things have been going to shit on him since the epic indy 500 win. Has a first and a second here the last two years, but the rest were never better than 8th.

Pagenaud with an under the radar 5th and 6th in his only two efforts. Didn't have the car i thought he would have at Pocono and finished 6th. This man is a pro and even better, he's a money maker

Power - Helio should have whipped his teammates ass after the stunt he pulled last week, but at least race officials made the right call. Power's crying is getting old. He has a 15th avg in 5 attempts. I'll be looking to fade him under the right circumstances.

Wilson and Sato haven't done jack here either.

Will add more later...

 

[captjohn67]

Bourdais - has 4 top tens this year after 11 races and placed 14th in his only effort here. I think by now you should know what i think about him

Hinch - never qualified worse than 7th in his three trips here, but only has one podium ( the win last yr ) and has only 4 top 10's in the 11 races this year. It would take balls to play against him here, but i may very well do so. He makes to many mental mistakes for me. This is his 4th year in indycar and sitting 12th in the point standings is unacceptable when you are sitting in the rockets that Andretti provides you.

Briscoe - seems to be turning around his ho hum year and has done well here. Obviously wasn't around last year, but has an avg qualifying of 6 and avg finish of 7.4. If you take away his 18th place finish here in 2012 (contact on lap 178 with Newgarden) he has an avg finish of 4.75. I will be looking for an insulting number on him, and feel sure i will get one.

Rahal - 4 top 10's in 6 races here - usually love to pick on him but will probably avoid him in this spot....but we'll see

see you when they put some numbers up...

 

[captjohn67]

forgot to mention that Hawksworth has been cleared to race after his 100g wreck at Pocono. To put that in perspective, the highest recorded ever was Kenny Brack in Texas ( 214g ). You don't usually see him posted, but if by chance he is, you know the man is still hurting. Can't think of a better innovation than the safety barriers.

Forgot to mention that Munoz finished 3 laps down in 2013 and one lap down in 2012 when running the lights cars. Doesn't mean i won't bet on him though.

 

[captjohn67]

kanaan +875 (0.25)

2007 - crash lap 85 (led zero laps)
2008 - crash lap 211 (led 71 laps)
2009 - crash lap 108 (led 48 laps)
2010 - won ( led 62 laps)
2011 - 2nd ( led 25 laps)
2012 - 3rd ( led zero laps)
2013 - 3rd ( led zero laps)

shoulda, coulda won last week. More of a gut feel than anything, but with decent history behind the gut feel. See you after qualifying. :cheers:

 

[Fondybadger]

Good luck. With how Tony has performed recently there appears to be some good value.

 

[Fondybadger]

http://espn.go.com/racing/indycar/s...wa-speedway-wild-card-championship-contenders

NEWTON, Iowa -- Bigger isn't always better, and that certainly holds true when it comes to the Iowa Corn 300, the 12th round of the Verizon IndyCar Series.

At seven-eighths of a mile, Iowa Speedway is the shortest track on the IndyCar schedule, and the anticipated crowd of about 30,000 for Saturday's race (8 p.m. ET, NBCSN) certainly won't be the largest of the season.
But a crowd of 30,000 looks a lot more impressive in a 35,000-seat venue such as Iowa, rather than highlighting the vast expanses of empty grandstands when a slightly larger audience shows up at a much larger facility such as Texas Motor Speedway. The intimacy of a more packed-in (not to mention enthusiastic) crowd around a bullring-like circuit gives the Iowa race perhaps the best ambiance on the IndyCar calendar outside established classics such as the Long Beach Grand Prix and the Indianapolis 500.
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[TD="width: 200"][FONT=verdana, arial, geneva]Marco Andretti, who won at Iowa in 2011, is hoping to rejoin the title hunt sooner rather than later.[/FONT][/TD]
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IndyCar has run at Iowa Speedway since 2007, but this is the first time the race has been pushed back two to three weeks from the usual June date into July. As such, the Iowa race assumes more importance in the countdown to the championship, which is setting up as a showdown between the three Team Penske drivers. Schmidt Peterson Motorsports' Simon Pagenaud ranks third in the title chase, but the Iowa race might be the best opportunity to elevate one of the Andretti Autosport drivers back into the mix.
Ryan Hunter-Reay (fifth in the standings) won at Iowa in 2012 in his championship season, and Marco Andretti (2011) and James Hinchcliffe (2013) are also Iowa winners. Tony Kanaan's win in 2010 for AA started a run of four straight for the team; Dario Franchitti won the inaugural '07 contest, also in an Andretti car.
Andretti (seventh in the points chase) and Hinchcliffe (12th) know that time is running out on their championship hopes but also realize that, based on their team's traditional dominance at the track, there's no better place to get a rally started.
"The cars that the team has had at Iowa have been really competitive since they started going there," Hinchcliffe said. "That gives the team a lot of confidence, but at the same time you can't rest on your laurels because you know everybody will have improved on their packages from last year and many teams tested there.
"Going back after my performance last year is something I'm looking forward to," he added. "But again, you go with these raised expectations because we did have such a good race and historically the team has had such good cars there. I have confidence in the guys that we can sort it out on Saturday night and repeat."
Andretti is coming off a frustrating run in the Pocono 500, where he fought hard to finish ninth after incurring an early pit road speed violation. But Hunter-Reay's day was even worse, as mechanical troubles sent him behind the wall for 19 laps and doomed him to 18th place at the flag.
Given the Andretti team's recent dominance on short ovals (Hunter-Reay also won at Milwaukee in 2013), the American star wishes there were an opportunity to score double points at one of those tracks, like the ones IndyCar offers on 500-mile superspeedway races and street course doubleheaders.
"We don't pay double points on the short ovals at all, and short ovals is what IndyCar is all about," Hunter-Reay said. "It started obviously at the Indy 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but the Milwaukee Mile is the oldest racetrack in the world. It's deep in IndyCar heritage.
"That's somewhere I think, if we're going to do a double-point race, that would be an ideal one."
Within the Penske team, the current storyline is the looming presence of Juan Pablo Montoya. After winning the season opener at St. Petersburg, Florida, Will Power has led the championship from the start, and Helio Castroneves' consistent campaign has allowed him to catch up to his mistake-prone teammate.
But Montoya -- with four consecutive top-seven finishes, including three podiums topped by his recent victory in the Pocono 500 -- has built a ton of momentum. Fourth in the standings, 55 points behind his teammates, the Colombian must now be considered a strong championship threat.
Castroneves, who moved into a tie for the series lead with Power with a second-place finish at Pocono, refuses to think ahead about the championship.
"I have been in this situation too many times before, so I'm not going to put too much emphasis on being tied for the lead," Castroneves remarked. "We still have a lot of work left to do, but to have a solid weekend at Pocono after a bit of a disappointing weekend in Houston is a confidence builder.
"Team Penske has not yet won a race at Iowa Speedway, but we've had fast cars. I feel like this could be the weekend."
Power admitted that solid performances at Iowa and Milwaukee are critical to his championship hopes.
"The short ovals are probably the weakest part of my game, but we ran really strong at Milwaukee last year, so I hope we are turning a corner with that part of the program," he said. "We're lucky that we are still tied for the points lead. The good news is that we are bringing fast cars to the track every week. When you have speed, you are always a threat to win."
Pagenaud, a two-time winner this season, is another driver who traditionally has not been at his best on short ovals. The Frenchman is 44 points behind Castroneves and Power.
"We've caught up a lot of points in the last three races, picking up 50 points on the lead," Pagenaud said. "We've been competitive everywhere, and I feel confident where we're sitting. The next few races coming up suit me well, and anything is possible at this point.
"We're right in the hunt with seven races left, and this is a very exciting time for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports."
Run as a 250-lap (218.75-mile) race from 2007 to 2013, the Iowa event has been lengthened to 300 laps (262.5 miles) this year. This is the third time the Indy cars will race under the lights at Iowa Speedway, but the heat race format to determine the grid the past two years has been abandoned in favor of traditional single-car qualifying.

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[captjohn67]

thanks for posting Fondy and appreciate the good luck. Light rain washed out the first practice (only ran 19 minutes) and they're going to try and get a practice in shortly and qualify this afternoon at 6pm central. Hinch was first and Kanaan was second. But what concerns me is if they do wash out, they'll go by points for the starting grid....not good for me, but we shall see. The forecast for Sat evening looks 50/50. Not good either.

 

[captjohn67]

Hinch -120 Montoya
Kimball -105 Bourdais
Pagenaud -140 Wilson

forecast still looks iffy...GLTA

 

[captjohn67]

Briscoe -110 Munoz

that should do it...make it a good one

 

[Fondybadger]

BOL today

 

[captjohn67]

you too Fondy (handshake)....hindsight is 20/20, but wish I had pulled the trigger early on Briscoe when he was +2750, I think he's got a good shot today. I also think this is going to be a crazy one. Everyone is going to want to be up front because of the weather and I think this could turn into one of those clusters. We shall see.