Indy 500 champion taking F1-like streak into Iowa doubleheader

NASCAR is officially listed as the owner of Iowa Speedway. But IndyCar fans know different. The track owner is really Josef Newgarden, and it's been that way for the better part of the last decade.

When IndyCar travels to "the fastest short track on the planet", the 33-year-old native of Hendersonville, Tennessee tends to be the only driver who has much of a chance to find victory lane.

The Team Penske driver is responsible for six of the seven wins at the four-turn, 0.894-mile (1.439-kilometer) Newton, Iowa oval earned by active full-time drivers, and the seventh would have been his if not for a late shock failure in his No. 2 Chevrolet handing the victory to Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward in 2022.

In a racing series largely considered the most competitive in the world, it's a stat that's hard to fathom.

Newgarden led 282 of 300 laps with Ed Carpenter Racing in 2016, and he has kept up that level of dominance since joining Roger Penske's team in 2017.

He led 245 of 300 laps en route to victory in 2019, 214 of 250 laps en route to victory in 2020, 208 of 250 laps en route to victory in 2022, and a total of 341 of 500 laps of last year's doubleheader en route to a sweep that was never in doubt.

He notably led 212 of 250 laps in race number two, despite starting on row four of the grid. In fact, he only has one pole to accompany those six wins. Two-time champion teammate Will Power, by comparison, has eight poles and still no wins.

And we didn't even mention the 2018 race Newgarden dominated before coming up just short at the end, leading 229 of 300 laps, and the aforementioned fluke non-win in 2022 which ultimately ended up costing him a third series championship. He led 148 of the 235 laps he ran before crashing with a huge lead with 65 laps to go.

The last time he didn't lead laps at Iowa was in 2014, when he drove from 21st to second place for Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing.

IndyCar didn't race at Iowa in 2021, meaning that Newgarden has found victory lane in four straight years of the series visiting its shortest track on the schedule.

It's the type of streak you'd expect to read about in Formula 1, but not so much in IndyCar.

Newgarden eyeing rebound at Iowa

Aside from his second consecutive Indy 500 win, Newgarden really hasn't had that great of a 2024 season. He has just two top 15 finishes in the other eight races, and he sits 143 points out of the championship lead, the equivalent of almost three race wins.

The driver who has never finished outside of the top five in points and only twice finished lower than second since joining Team Penske finds himself in 10th place, just beyond the season's halfway point.

Even with six of the season's final eight races being oval races, it's hard to see him completely closing that gap to a fellow two-time series champion in Alex Palou whose consistency is unrivaled. Palou's only non-top eight finish in the last two years, oddly enough, came because Newgarden took him out in last month's race on the streets of Detroit.

"I think it certainly has played to our recent strengths," Newgarden told Beyond the Flag in regard to the season's final eight races consisting of six oval events. "But trends change quickly."

This weekend's doubleheader at Iowa marks IndyCar's first oval visit since the Indy 500 on Memorial Day Weekend.

"I think we got to make sure we're still strong on ovals," Newgarden continued. "There are going to be track changes at Iowa, which we're going to have to deal with, and it's going to take more than just success on ovals."

But Iowa is still Newgarden's playground, and even with his win on the streets of St. Petersburg having been stripped, it's not hard to imagine the series leaving Iowa this weekend with Newgarden as the new season leader in victories with three, which would give him wins in a whopping 11 of the 14 most recent oval races.

The repave could level the playing field, but IndyCar fans should know better than to let that get in the way of the reality that Newgarden is still the favorite to walk away with two more wins at his all-time most successful track this weekend. When something new is introduced, the cream does tend to rise to the top. The combination of Newgarden and Team Penske certainly is that.

Just don't call him the "king of corn country", because it was literally three seconds after NBC Sports announcer Kevin Lee did that in 2022 when Newgarden found himself backwards in the wall.

Saturday's Hy-Vee Homefront 250 is set to be broadcast live on NBC from Iowa Speedway beginning at 8:00 p.m. ET, and Sunday's Hy-Vee One Step 250 is set to be broadcast live on the same channel beginning at 12:00 p.m. ET. Both races are scheduled to be 250-lap races. Start a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss either event!