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IndyCar: Should Iowa Keep its Day Race or Go back to the Night Race?

By Asher Fair

NEWTON, IA - JUNE 23: A general view of the track during the Iowa Corn Indy 250 at Iowa Speedway on June 23, 2013 in Newton, Iowa. (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images)
NEWTON, IA - JUNE 23: A general view of the track during the Iowa Corn Indy 250 at Iowa Speedway on June 23, 2013 in Newton, Iowa. (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images) /
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Over the past eight years, half of Iowa Speedway’s IndyCar races have taken place during the day, with the other half taking place at night. What’s the best option moving forward?

Since Iowa Speedway began hosting IndyCar races in 2007, the race has taken place during the day seven times and at night four times. For the first four seasons, the race was a day race. In 2011, however, the race was moved to the night for the first time.

After that 2011 race, there have been three day races and three night races at Iowa. For the past two seasons, the race was held during the day. Should this continue, or should the race go back to being a night race?

Obviously the series, which has drawn very small numbers in the attendance category at ovals over the past few years, wants the most possible fans to show up to their races. When Fontana had its lone day race between 2012 and 2015, hardly anyone showed up to witness a race that featured 80 lead changes, the most in IndyCar history.

Why? Because it was a day race in southern California in the middle of summer. After that, the race was dropped from the schedule despite the fantastic racing that it produced simply because of attendance.

Let’s take a look at how competitive the Iowa races have been since the first night race was held back in 2011. All statistics are from Racing Reference.

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First, let’s begin with the night races. In 2011, race winner Marco Andretti led 42 of the race’s 250 laps. The following year, Ryan Hunter-Reay won the race after leading 15 of the race’s 250 laps. The next night race was held in 2014, when Ryan Hunter-Reay led just two of the race’s 300 laps en route to his second Iowa victory. Then in 2015 in the most recent Iowa night race, Ryan Hunter-Reay won again after leading 37 of the race’s 300 laps.

In total, race winners have led just 96 of the 1,100 laps (8.73%) at Iowa night races, which illustrates how competitive the night races at Iowa have been. The leader of the most laps has never won an Iowa night race.

Now let’s talk about the day races. Since night races were introduced in 2011, there have been three day races, the first of which being held in 2013. That season, James Hinchcliffe dominated the race, leading 226 of the race’s 250 laps. Three year’s later at the next Iowa day race, Josef Newgarden did even better than Hinchcliffe, leading 282 of the race’s 300 in perhaps the most dominant IndyCar performance in recent history. And then this season, Helio Castroneves led 217 of the race’s 300 laps en route to victory.

In total, race winners have led 725 of the 850 laps (85.29%) of the three most recent Iowa day races, which illustrates the fact that those races have not been as competitive as the night races. The leader of the most laps won all three of those races, while the leader of the most laps has never won an Iowa night race, as mentioned above.

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Based on these numbers, night races would appear to be the way to go. There has been better racing with more competition, which should in turn draw in a larger audience both from a television ratings perspective and an attendance perspective. But let’s go one step deeper to validate this conclusion.

To be fair, the winners of those night races weren’t the dominant drivers, yet there were still dominant cars in the field that did not win. Sure, the fact that the dominant drivers didn’t win illustrates how competitive the night races have been, but it does in a way show that in both day and night races, one driver has been dominant. But just how dominant have the dominant drivers at the night races been compared to the dominant drivers at the day races?

In 2011, Dario Franchitti led 172 of the race’s 250 laps, yet he did not win. The following year, Helio Castroneves led 137 of the race’s 250 laps, yet he also did not win. Then in 2014, Tony Kanaan led 247 of the race’s 300 laps, but he came up short in the end. Finally, in 2015, Josef Newgarden led 111 of the race’s 300 laps, but he had to settle for 2nd.

The leaders of the most laps in the night races never won, yet they led 667 of the 1,100 laps (60.64%). While that shows that night races, like day races, have had dominant drivers, the percentage of laps led by those drivers is much lower in the night races than the day races.

Also, the fact that none of the dominant drivers at the night races won yet all of them won the day races shows that the competition at the night races trumps the competition at the day races.

Here are some other notable numbers to back up the claim that Iowa night races are more competitive than Iowa day races. The four night race winners have had an average starting position of 11.5, while the past three day race winners have had an average starting position of 2.3 and the winners of all seven day races have an average starting position of 4.57 with just one winner starting lower than the second row (Tony Kanaan, 15th, 2010).

Now that I’m done throwing ever statistic in the book to show why Iowa night races are better than day races, here is the one piece of evidence that actually backs up Iowa Speedway hosting day races as opposed to night races. In terms of the lead changes, the four night races have averaged 9.75, while the three most recent day races have averaged 10.0 and the seven day races have averaged 11.43.

But let’s face it. While the lead changes favor the day races, we all know that those totals can be skewed by pit stops, and there is hardly a difference between day and night races in that category. All of the other statistical categories lean heavily towards the night races being the way to go for the future of IndyCar races at Iowa Speedway. Let’s hope the series takes notice and acts accordingly.

Next: IndyCar Driver Power Rankings

Would you rather see IndyCar races at Iowa during the day or at night? Let us know in the comments below, and be sure to follow me on Instagram as well as Beyond the Flag on both Instagram and Twitter. Finally, don’t forget to follow along with Beyond the Flag for the latest news, opinions and analysis stemming from a number of different motorsports series. You don’t want to miss any of it.