IndyCar at Iowa: Team Penske Sweeps Qualifying, Will Power One Shy of Mario Andretti Record | IndyCar

The busy weekend at Iowa Speedway continued this morning with dual qualifying around the 0.875-mile tri-oval. Team Penske flexed their muscle once again, to the surprise of no one. The team swept the front row for both races as Josef Newgarden will start 2nd in both races.

“Massive, man,” Power said. “I’m so stoked to get the Chevy Verizon 5G car two pole positions. I’ve been watching this race, and at the test I put a lot of effort into getting everything right for the qualifying runs and the race. I think the car is good. It’s going to be a pretty tough race with all the heat and a lot of tire degradation. We’ll see what we’ve got.”

IndyCar used the simple format for qualifying that was debuted last year, which was very well received. Each driver got two timed laps around the track by themselves. Their time on the first lap determined their starting position for today’s race, and their second lap time set their starting position for tomorrow’s event.

Conor Daly will be a driver to watch this weekend as well. The Ed Carpenter Racing driver was 2nd in practice yesterday, then qualified 3rd for today’s race and 4th for Race 2 tomorrow. Pato O’Ward rolls off in 4th today and will start 8th tomorrow. Scott McLaughlin qualified 5th and 6th5, as all three Penske cars will be tough to beat.

Two of the last three Iowa races have been won by Newgarden, who has simply dominated this place. He has three wins in total, two runner-up finishes, and has led 1,150 laps over the last seven races. No other driver in that time frame has even led a total of 100 laps here. A weekend sweep is certainly not out of the question for the Team Penske ace.