2007 Iowa Corn Indy 250

The 2007 Iowa Corn Indy 250 was a race in the 2007 IRL IndyCar Series. It was held over the weekend of June 22–24, 2007, as the eighth round of the seventeen-race calendar. It was the inaugural race at the brand-new 0.875-mile (1.408 km) Iowa Speedway.

The layout of Iowa Speedway

Pre-Race

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Practice scheduled for Friday was shortened due to thunderstorms in the area. Despite lack of Friday practice, many drivers expressed awe at the 7/8th mile track for being so fast, with practice speeds averaging over 180 mph (290 km/h). Drivers originally believed that it would be a competitive race, but soon found out that passing would be very difficult. The other main concern of the track was the physical requirements, with the 7/8th mile track driving like a superspeedway and drivers experiencing 4.8 lateral G-Forces during the race. Scott Dixon won the pole in qualifying on Saturday (182.360 mph/17.6486 secs). Hélio Castroneves qualified 2nd (182.272 mph/17.6571 secs), while Danica Patrick came in 11th (180.974 mph/17.7838 secs).

Race

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The first half of the race was a "crashfest" with 7 cars crashing out in the first 100 laps. The largest crash occurred on a restart on lap 100, when cars tried to go 4 wide on the frontstretch. Danica Patrick, Sam Hornish Jr., and others were eliminated. Many driver's blamed the hard tires of the race. This was caused because of an unusually cool day, with temperatures around 75 degrees for the race, originally forecast as late as the night before the race around 90-95 degrees. Pole sitter Scott Dixon had steering problems at the start, and originally retired, though his team repaired the car and he ended up 10th, many laps down. The race ended up a battle between Andretti-Green Racing teammates Dario Franchitti and Marco Andretti, with Franchitti winning. Scott Sharp came in third.

Classification

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Fin.
Pos
Car
No.
Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Laps
Led
Points
1 27   Dario Franchitti Andretti Green Racing 250 1:48:14.1344 3 96 50+3
2 26   Marco Andretti Andretti Green Racing 250 +0.0681 12 4 40
3 8   Scott Sharp Rahal Letterman Racing 250 +1.0577 4 4 35
4 15   Buddy Rice Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 250 +4.2426 17 5 32
5 14   Darren Manning A.J. Foyt Racing 250 +5.2156 15 0 30
6 20   Ed Carpenter Vision Racing 247 +3 Laps 5 0 28
7 5   Sarah Fisher Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 247 +3 Laps 18 0 26
8 3   Hélio Castroneves Team Penske 246 +4 Laps 2 57 24
9 4   Vítor Meira Panther Racing 216 Suspension 13 71 22
10 9   Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing 173 +77 Laps 1 10 20
11 10   Dan Wheldon Chip Ganassi Racing 145 +105 Laps 9 0 19
12 22   A. J. Foyt IV Vision Racing 99 Crash 10 0 18
13 7   Danica Patrick Andretti Green Racing 99 Crash 11 1 17
14 6   Sam Hornish Jr. Team Penske 99 Crash 8 0 16
15 55   Kosuke Matsuura Panther Racing 99 Crash 16 0 15
16 11   Tony Kanaan Andretti Green Racing 85 Crash 7 0 14
17 17   Jeff Simmons Rahal Letterman Racing 85 Crash 6 0 13
18 23   Milka Duno (R) SAMAX Motorsport 60 Too slow* 19 0 12
19 2   Tomas Scheckter Vision Racing 0 Crash 14 0 12
Lead changes: 13 between 8 drivers

Note

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Milka Duno was ordered by race officials to maintain a minimum speed and when she failed to meet that speed she was parked.

Caution Periods

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There were six caution periods during the race, with a total of sixty-seven laps run under yellow.

Laps Cause
1-12 Dan Wheldon and Tomas Scheckter crash in turn 2
74-82 Hélio Castroneves spin in turn 2
86-98 Tony Kanaan and Jeff Simmons crash in turn 2
100-120 Hélio Castroneves, Sam Hornish Jr, Danica Patrick,
Ed Carpenter, A.J. Foyt IV, and Kosuke Matsuura crash on the frontstretch
144-150 Debris on the frontstretch
227-231 Debris in turn 2

References

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Preceded by IRL IndyCar Series
round 8

2007
Succeeded by