Team Penske’s Helio Castroneves claimed his first victory of the 2017 season and his first since the 2014 season with his win at Iowa.
Team Penske’s Helio Castroneves became the ninth different winner in 11 IndyCar races so far this season with his victory in the Iowa Corn 300 at the 4-turn, 0.875-mile D-shaped Iowa Speedway oval in Newton, Iowa.
Castroneves held off Ed Carpenter Racing’s JR Hildebrand, who tied his career-high finish of 2nd place, by 3.9647 seconds. The win was Castroneves’ 30th career victory, moving him into 12th all-time. It was his first win since he won at the second Belle Isle race in 2014.
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Chevrolet now his five victories to Honda’s six after taking the victory at Iowa. Chevrolet drivers took the top 4 spots in qualifying and finished with two drivers in the top 2, three in the top 4, and five in the top 7.
The highest finishing driver of a Honda car was Ryan Hunter-Reay, who finished in 3rd place for his fifth podium finish at Iowa in the past six seasons. The only other Honda driver in the top 7 was Graham Rahal, who finished in 5th for his fifth consecutive top 8 finish this season.
Despite only taking two of the top 7 spots, Honda drivers did manage to take all but one spot from 8th down through 18th, but that was largely due to the fact that Chevrolet only has eight cars in the 21-car field. Chevrolet pretty much dominated the entire race weekend.
Other Notable Statistics
The race featured a total of 12 lead changes among eight different drivers. Helio Castroneves led the most laps, leading 217 of the race’s 300. All three of the three Iowa day races in the DW12 era have been dominated by the race winner, with James Hinchcliffe leading 226 of the race’s 250 laps in 2013, and Josef Newgarden leading 282 of the race’s 300 laps last season.
The race featured four caution flag periods for a total of 44 laps. The first caution flag of the race came out on lap 57 when Mikhail Aleshin spun and hit the turn 2 wall. The second caution flag of the race came out on lap 132 when Carlos Munoz brushed the turn 4 wall, and the third caution flag of the race came out for a similar reason on lap 171 when Munoz’s teammate Conor Daly brushed the wall on the front stretch. The fourth and final caution flag of the race came out on lap 197 for moisture before it turned into a red flag.
See full race results from the 11th race of the 2017 season at IndyCar.com.
Next Race
The next IndyCar race is on the streets of Toronto, Ontario. That race takes place on Sunday, July 16th, 2017 at 3:40 PM ET and will be broadcast live on CNBC starting at 3:00 PM ET with a replay set for 7:00 PM ET on NBC Sports Network.
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