NEWTON, Iowa -- Is it possible to have pack racing on a short track?
The Verizon IndyCar Series may find out this weekend at Iowa Speedway.
Three weeks removed from an exciting but controversial race at Auto Club Speedway that brought pack-style racing back to open-wheel competition for the first time since 2011, several drivers fear that the aerodynamic setup the series has mandated for Iowa will produce the same kind of too-close-for-comfort action.
Although it's just 0.894 miles around, Iowa is wide and fast. It has raced more like a superspeedway than a short track since it was added to the IndyCar Series schedule in 2007. However, the series has always treated it like a bullring, running the same high-downforce package it stipulates for other tracks measuring a mile or less.
"I'm not a big fan of that style of racing by any stretch, but we don't get to decide. ... [The drivers] haven't been consulted or anything, and the series has trapped itself because of the way the aero kits are." Sebastien Bourdais
Drivers have generally been able to run flat-out in qualifying at Iowa, and this year's cars, with additional downforce from their Chevrolet- and Honda-designed aero kits, are expected to be even more planted to the track.
Iowa hasn't produced pack racing in the past. The cars have often run single file, and the lead driver has even struggled to lap slower cars. That may not be the case for Saturday night's 300-lapper, and the idea of ultratight racing in such tight quarters has some drivers nervous.
"I'm not a big fan of that style of racing by any stretch, but we don't get to decide," said Sebastien Bourdais, winner of the most recent IndyCar Series race at the Milwaukee Mile. "[The drivers] haven't been consulted or anything, and the series has trapped itself because of the way the aero kits are.
"It could very well be the same at Iowa because the amount of downforce we can run at Iowa is crazy."
But fears of a pack-style race subsided after a pair of 45-minute practice sessions on Friday, with oppressive heat and humidity contributing to the cars not running as close to each other as expected. Similar difficult conditions are forecast for the race.
Indy cars certainly get around the Iowa bullring quickly, with Team Penske's Helio Castroneves holding the track record with a lap he turned in 17.228 seconds, averaging 186.809 miles per hour, in 2014. However, Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon won the pole position for that race, thanks to a faster two-lap average.
Dixon, a three-time series champion, is second in this year's title chase, 54 points behind Juan Pablo Montoya. An Iowa win would be a great start to his traditional late-season rally.
"I think I've been on the pole twice there, but I don't think I've ever been on the podium, so I've got a little bit of work to do," Dixon said.
"I think it's probably one of the best shows we have all season," he added. "The G-loadings that you're getting and how quick they get the cars to perform around the track is spectacular."
"It's super physical, so you might see people falling out by the end of the race," said Team Penske's Simon Pagenaud. "I remember last year having a really tough time at the end of the race. Now with more downforce, it might be even more the case."
Montoya had a rough weekend at Iowa last year in his first visit to the track with Team Penske. He qualified 19th and crashed out with 20 laps remaining in an incident that left him fuming at Ed Carpenter.
With two of Dixon's strongest tracks ahead -- Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and Sonoma Raceway -- Montoya can't afford a repeat of last year, though he said his 2014 race at Iowa was better than the result reflected.
"I felt we were really strong at Iowa last year but didn't get a chance to show it as we were crashed out of the race," Montoya said.
"Obviously, I'd love to go there and win the race, but we know what we need to do over these last four races to win the championship."
Castroneves, who is tied with Graham Rahal for third in the standings, 69 points behind Montoya, is another former Iowa pole winner seeking his first win at the venue.
"It's our smallest oval, but man, it's really fast," Castroneves said. "You have to really stay alert because you are in traffic a lot.
"One slip and you can easily find yourself behind the wall losing a lot of points."
If there's anyplace on the schedule where Andretti Autosport is most likely to bounce out of its 2015 slump, it's Iowa. Andretti has been the team to beat, winning six of the eight races the series has held there, and the past five in a row. Ryan Hunter-Reay has two of those wins, in 2012 and 2014, with Dario Franchitti, Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti and James Hinchcliffe also reaching Victory Lane for the team.
"I'm going for my fifth Iowa podium and hope to keep the team's Iowa win tradition going," Marco Andretti said.
Kanaan, who is now Dixon's teammate with the Ganassi team, is another perennial Iowa front-runner.
"There's just something about these short ovals that I love," Kanaan said. "Iowa is always such an exciting race, and with the way we've been running this season, I don't see this weekend's race being any different."
Indeed, Kanaan is likely to be in the mix whether the Iowa race is a single-file snooze or a frenzied pack-style contest.
Which will it be? We'll find out Saturday night.