If you paid close attention to drivers following Sunday’s Iowa Corn 300, you noticed most of them gingerly removing their gloves and checking their numb hands for blisters. That’s how fierce turning left 600 times in less than two hours can be. You can’t feel your hands afterward but for the pain of the blisters.
Try it sometime. Try turning a car left repeatedly, to the point that you’re dizzy when you finally stop. Don’t do it from the comfort of a leather captain’s chair in a soft, air-conditioned SUV with adequate cupholders and blind-spot monitors, either. Do it from a vehicle that doesn’t like you, a vehicle that acts like a bull that is not about to let you hang on for eight seconds.
Iowa Speedway is a beast that measures 0.894 of a mile. It’s a test like no other on the Verizon IndyCar Series schedule. It hasn’t drawn as well in recent years as when the track first welcomes the series starting in 2007, but Iowa Speedway and short ovals in general are necessary to the various tests of skill that are the hallmark and history of this form of racing.
With the loss of ISM Raceway in Phoenix from the 2019 schedule, Iowa stands alone in INDYCAR’s short oval category at the moment. It’s imperative that the track among the cornfields in Newton, Iowa, remains part of the calendar.
“For me, Iowa is crucial,” James Hinchcliffe said and that was before he won Sunday’s race. “I think INDYCAR short-track racing is one of the most fun things you can do from a driver’s seat. It’s one of the most entertaining things we do. Phoenix falling off the schedule is tough. We had high expectations for that place, and it used to be such a staple on the Indy car calendar, but the fact of the matter is the track changed and the cars have changed and the racing just wasn’t what it used to be.”
The racing isn’t what it used to be at Iowa, either, but the 2018 car with the universal aero kit was surprisingly lively Sunday at Iowa, as it was at Phoenix in April. Josef Newgarden led 229 laps before Hinchcliffe tracked him down, but Iowa Speedway and the new kit combined for 955 on-track passes. Hinchcliffe had 83 of those. Iowa is hardly a boring race, but it has struggled to retain the audience it had when INDYCAR first raced there in 2007.
Road and street races on the schedule seem relatively healthy, but ovals – especially short ovals – toil to find eyeballs. Drivers who love racing at Iowa will tell you in the same sentence that they’d love to go back to Milwaukee and Richmond, but neither appears likely. Best case? Phoenix is replaced by another short oval. Acceptable? It’s replaced by another oval.
“I would love for Phoenix to be replaced by a short oval, but I don’t think there are many left on the menu,” said Ryan Hunter-Reay, who has three Iowa victories to his credit. “I’d love to go to another short oval – or any oval. We have to keep our oval count up. They seem to be kind of slowly but surely dwindling away. You’ve got to make them work. You can’t go somewhere and have 5,000 people (in attendance) on race day.”
The count for the 2018 schedule looks like this: six road courses, five street courses, three big ovals, two short ovals and Gateway Motorsports Park, whose 1.25-mile layout doesn’t quite fit the short-oval category. With the loss of Phoenix, the overall oval total drops to five and the short-oval count drops to one.
“We’ll find another place to replace Phoenix,” said Tony Kanaan, who posted on social media that he was “mentally and physically drained” after a difficult 17th-place Iowa finish. “For me, it would be nice to have another short oval. I love them, and I think we do well at them. I don’t see this place going away, which is great.”
The distinction this form of motorsport has over others is its diversity of disciplines. What has been the four-legged stool of a diverse schedule – road courses, street courses, big ovals and short ovals – is in danger of becoming a three-legged stool. Short ovals are difficult to find and even more difficult to keep, but it’s important that they are.
“It’s very hard to make a new oval event work,” Hunter-Reay said. “It’s tough. You go into a new market in a remote area or a place outside a metropolitan city. Without strong promoting, it’s tough to bring the folks to sit in the stands. Gateway was a good example of one that worked because the promoters promoted the heck out of it. That’s what you need.”
Blisters or not, short ovals are the soul – and often the most difficult test – of INDYCAR.
“Places like Iowa and Milwaukee are great short tracks for our cars,” Hinchcliffe said. “I wish we could go back to Milwaukee. Iowa, in my heart at least, has the top step of the short-track podium in the series at the moment. It races so well. There are multiple lanes. It races like a superspeedway, but you’ve got to drive it like a short track. For us, it’s a lot of fun.”
It’s also crucial to bring it back. And, if possible, add more.