The Iowa Corn Indy 250

The inaugural Iowa Corn Indy 250 IndyCar Series race was held yesterday in my hometown of Newton, Iowa.  The Rusty Wallace-designed Iowa Speedway hosted the race on Sunday in front of a reported crowd of about 40,000 race fans.  That's a pretty impressive amount of people to see an IndyCar race at any location.

Now, I was never enamored with the name "Iowa Corn Indy 250" as the title of the race.  Actually, the full name of the race was the "Iowa Corn Indy 250 Presented by Ethanol", but that's quite a mouthful.

What they were trying to do is promote the use of Ethanol, a corn-based fuel for cars.  I don't know why they didn't call it the "Iowa Ethanol Indy 250".  As Scott Schroeder and I were talking on Saturday, calling it the Iowa Corn Indy 250 further perpetuates the stereotypes we as Iowans have to overcome seemingly everyday with people around the nation that all Iowa offers is corn and nothing else.  Actually, only 3 percent of the population of Iowa are full-time farmers. 

Cindy and I had planned on going to the race.  But then her little appendectomy episode happened and she was still a little weak and still sore from her procedure.  I ended up watching the race at home.  But I talked to friends who attended the Iowa Corn Indy 250 before, during and after the race.  While they had high praise for the facility, there's evidentially a few kinks to work out with both the track and the infrastructure of the place. 

First of all, drivers just couldn't pass on the 7/8th's mile track.  Even with as much as 14% banking in the corners allowing drivers to run full bore all around the track, there just wasn't sufficient room to do any side by side driving.  The result of this, along with unseasonably cool conditions making the track a little slick, were a number of wrecks that knocked out such noted drivers as Danica Patrick (right), Tomas Scheckter, Tony Kanaan, and Sam Hornish, Jr.

For the final 40 laps of the race, Marco Andretti chased his teammate, Dario Franchitti, around the oval resulting in a very boring ending.  As one of my friends told me after the race, "Andretti may have had the faster car, but he just couldn't find any place to pass Franchitti on the track."  And with that, Franchitti, the 2007 Indianapolis 500 winner, won the first Iowa Corn Indy 250 by a half a car length.

I heard from more than one friend after the race that the race was, indeed, boring.  Still, having something of that magnitude - and nationally televised by ABC, no less - in Newton, Iowa helped pick up the spirits of the community that has recently suffered through the sale and the impending closing of Maytag.

Still the drivers said they loved the track and they used the race as a learning experience not only for themselves, but for owners and IndyCar Series officials who have to re-examine the set-up of the cars on this track.  They're going to have to do something or they're going to have a lot of trouble convincing people to come watch cars zoom around and around in a bowl with no chance of any real racing.   

The second major problem was the traffic and parking around the track.  Earlier in the week Iowa Speedway officials said that while they can handle 35,000 attendees, they weren't going turn anyone away who wanted to come to the race.  The result was a crowd of well over 35,000 with a number of people missing a good portion of the race while they were stuck in traffic.  It was a learning experience for the Iowa Speedway officials, as well. 

There were some celebrity sightings at the race.  In addition to the drivers and owners, Franchitti's wife, actress Ashley Judd (left), was on hand.  Rocker Gene Simmons from KISS was there on behalf of the IndyCar Series and was seen tooling about in a golf car.  The Teutel family from the television show American Chopper unveiled a custom designed motorcycle for the Iowa Corn 250.  And there were a number of politicians and dignitaries including Iowa's two senators, Chuck Grassley and Tom Harkin.   

I was going to go into some in-depth coverage of the Iowa Corn Indy 250, but my friend Gary Gaffney from "Steroid Nation" had all the particulars about the race already in place.  So click here to get more information on the race.

Comments

[Warren]

Great cheesecake photos! You need more of these.

[Tim Lake]

My wife was looking over my shoulder at your blog tonight. She saw the picture of Danica Patrick. She asked, "Who is that?" I told her it was Danica Patrick, the race car driver. She said, "No way! That's some model! Why does he have a picture of that girl on his blog?"

I tried to tell her it really WAS Danica Patrick! I still don't think she believes me. But she did recognize Ashley Judd.

[Tony Jobe]

That photo of Ashley Judd almost looks like a young Raquel Welch.

[Scott]

Tony, you scared the hell outta me. When I saw your comment about Judd looking like Welch , I thought you were talking about the picture from the medical updates article!!

I was sure Alford had finally blinded you for life!

:)