2023 INDYCAR HyVee Races at Iowa Speedway: Full Weekend Race Schedule

A pair of races at Iowa Speedway await drivers next weekend, for rounds 11 and 12 of the 2023 IndyCar season.

16 Jul 2023

Josef Newgarden, Will Power, Team Penske, Iowa Speedway

The IndyCar season will shrink by two rounds next weekend with a doubleheader event at Iowa Speedway. The short oval will host a pair of races, one on Saturday and the other on Sunday. Both races will pay out full points to the drivers, but a unique qualifying format on Saturday will set the grid for both races. Each driver will get two laps during qualifying. The first timed lap will be their qualifying time for the first race, and their second timed lap will determine their starting position for Sunday.

Qualifying will certainly be important, but pole position has not quite panned out on the bull ring over the years. In the 17 races at Iowa, only once has a driver won from the top starting spot. Four of those races were won by a driver starting outside of the top 12. Will Power has five poles at the track, but the all-time pole winner has never won in 15 attempts. In fact, Power and Scott Dixon have nine poles and 17 top-five finishes at Iowa, but neither have been to victory lane in 30 combined starts.

The driver to blame for that may be Power's teammate, Josef Newgarden. The Nashville native has completely dominated this race track with four wins and 1,506 laps led. The next-closest driver in terms of laps led is Helio Castroneves with 267 total. Team Penske has led 1,617 total laps in the last seven races at Iowa, and the next-closest team is Arrow McLaren with just 152 in that span. All eyes will absolutely be on that team next weekend, with Newgarden sitting 3rd in the championship standings.

Outside of Newgarden, the only other active full-time driver with a win at Iowa is Pato O'Ward. The Arrow McLaren driver finished 2nd and 1st in the two races last year, and is still searching for his first win of the season. Simon Pagenaud won at Iowa in 2020 but he has missed the last two races following his nasty crash at Mid-Ohio. Ryan Hunter-Reay is a three-time winner at Iowa, and will be making his first oval start for Ed Carpenter Racing. The three-day weekend kicks off on Friday with the lone practice session of the event.

Race weekend schedule (Eastern Standard Time)

Friday July 21

4:30 pm - Practice

Saturday July 22

9:30 pm - Qualifying

3:00 pm - Race 1

Sunday July 23

2:00 pm - Race 2