Another Hot One in Iowa for ARCA and Indycar

Iowa ARCA winner Chase Briscoe did a nice burnout

The winners at Iowa Speedway this weekend were plenty hot after an interesting trio of races, but Mother Nature didn't punish us like she did last year as temperatures were in the 80's instead of close to 100 as they were in 2015. The heat in the ARCA race Saturday night came from Chase Briscoe who captured his second straight ARCA win in fine style. As I told him and his team in Victory Lane afterwards, now I expect the floodgates to open for many more wins. We'll see if he can make it three straight next weekend in Indy at Lucas Oil Raceway.

Iowa podium: Veach (left), winner Felix Serralles and series leader Ed Jones

After a rain shower Sunday morning which washed out the Indy Lights qualifying, the heat in its 100 lapper came from the top drivers lamenting the lack of respect from backmarkers who they felt got in the way and effected the outcome of the race. Felix Serralles passed Zack Veach on the last lap to win as a teammate of Serralles managed to find his way into leader Veach's path which cost him momentum and the win. All of the Lights podium drivers bemoaned the driving tactics of several colleagues. I know we witnessed a lot of blocking that went unchecked most of the race so I don't blame them for being irate.

Josef Newgarden is one tough cookie

The Iowa Corn 300 Indycar race on Sunday followed Indy Lights and Josef Newgarden had the hot hand throughout and dominating a win which he later described as like driving in a "video game." After Simon Pagenaud won the pole Saturday to claim the 500th pole position for Penske Racing, I would have picked Simon as the likely winner but Josef started second next to Pagenaud, jumped into the lead on Lap 1 and rarely looked back. Joey was so hot he set an Indycar record by leading 282 of 300 laps, a feat which is almost ridiculous considering how competitive the Verizon Indycar Series has become in recent years. Joey continues to be impressive driving with wrist and collarbone fractures incurred during his Texas crash a few weeks ago. He is in the championship hunt and was truly excited in Victory Lane, gushing about how good his car had been throughout the race. Shooting the race, you could see he had command of the event and could drive anywhere he wanted on the tight Iowa oval. I know my brother was excited about it as he bought a couple of bottles of Fuzzy's vodka to take back to Tucson with him. We even saw Fuzzy himself in Victory Lane, and team owner Ed Carpenter couldn't have been happier if he had won the race himself. I just hope he can keep Josef around for the future, as his stock must surely be rising in the eyes of the big team owners like Penske, Andretti and Ganassi.

Brother Steve (right) and I in Victory Lane at Iowa

Iowa was a big weekend for me for many reasons. Last year, it was the first race I worked after my mother's death and her funeral was only four days before the 2015 ARCA race, so having a road trip and a race to work was good therapy for me when I really needed it. This year, my brother Steve came up after handling some business in the Kansas City area for his consulting firm, so we met up and worked the race weekend together before going our separate ways again Sunday night after Indycar was done. It was a blast hanging out with him and exploring the track more this year. He had never been to Iowa Speedway before and I had only been once, and that was last year when I was not able to stay for Indycar. My brother and I have decided we are going to meet for at least one race each year outside of the Indy 500 and we are already ahead of that this year since we met at Phoenix in April and now at Iowa. At Phoenix we were just spectators so Iowa was a chance for him to see things from the inside again and experience the funny (often downright silly) things that can happen in the photographer's room at a major race. Everyone is serious about their work but the running commentary that comes with it is often anything but serious.

Iowa winner Josef Newgarden had the field covered

It was also good for him to experience the days as I do at the track since they are often long, hot and hectic. Saturday we were at the track before 7:00 a.m. and left at 11:00 pm after the ARCA race, and I still had editing to complete! Sunday was a little shorter and we had an interruption for "moisture" in the morning so we didn't log quite as many steps on our pedometers! I was able to connect with a lot of people I know from social media but had never met in person as well as introduce old friends to Steve so he could feel like part of the track media community too. As anyone who's done this work for any length of time knows, that community is relatively small and you run into a lot of the same people at various race tracks along the way. One thing still bothered me after the weekend though, as I hit the highway for Indy at 9:00 pm Sunday knowing I wouldn't get home until around 3:00 the next morning: I can't call Mom after a race when I am on the road. Mom was a huge race fan and supported my passion for racing so it was nice to share that again this weekend with my brother.

My next race for ARCA is practically in my backyard since the series comes to Indianapolis for a 200 lap event at Lucas Oil Raceway on the westside of town July 22nd. The CRA Super Series has a 100 lap race that evening as well. It's also Brickyard 400 weekend in Indy so there should be a good crowd and lots of excitement. Best of all, I don't have a long drive and I get to sleep in my own bed! It will probably be another hot one so come on out and join us. Look me up in the ARCA marketing trailer if you do! Until next time, here's a selection of photos from all three races I covered at Iowa last weekend. If you want to see more, then go to arcaracing.com or motorsport.com!