Wow for the first time in the three years of the Iowa Corn Indy 250 race at the Iowa Speedway I was able to attend the race and i was very impressed and it was a good way to wrap up my very busy and crazy weekend that only included me attending this racing event.
We arrived at the track around 10 in the morning it was raining on the drive there but stop just shortly after we arrived at the track. I had fun by walking around and looking at thing went down and did the fan walk through the pits which i encourage everybody that goes to the races at the iowa speedway to do bc its fun you never know who you may run into doing the fan walk. While doing the fan walk, we saw Rusty Wallace, the creator of the iowa speedway and Shawn Johnson, Iowa's Olympic Gold Medalist and Dancing with the stars champion.
The TV Broadcast started at Noon and the start of the race was sladed to start at 12:30 and it did despite that morning rain so a big congrats goes out to the track drying crew and safety crews for getting the track ready to go. Qualifying got rained out the other day so the field was slight to start by points.
Helio Castroneves would Take the lead at the start of the race but just as they were completing lap 1, Robert Doombos, EJ Viso and Ryan Hunter-Reay would make contact in turn 4, Viso and Hunter-Reay the damage was too much and would end there day, Doombos would return the track later but numerous laps down.
On the restart, Castroneves would hold on to the lead and then would be passed by Scott Dixon on Lap 17. Dixon then would be passed by his Chip Ganassi Racing Team Dario Franchitti on lap 18 and the 2nd Caution would come out on lap 18 this time for debris on the backstretch. This would bring round of pit stops under yellow and this would hand the lead over to Ryan Briscoe.
Briscoe lead the field back to the green flag and then another yellow would come out on lap 34, this time it was Justin Wilson crashed in turn 2. Briscoe would come into the pits for a pit stop so this landed the lead over to Godaddy.com Girl Danica Patrick.
Patrick would lead the field back to the green on lap 42 when the race resumed. She would have her own team mate Tony Kanaan not that far back. Another Caution came out on lap 55 this time for Raphael Matos and Mario Moraes makeing contact in turn 2. Patrick would come to the pits and Kanaan would stay out handing the lead over to him.
Kanaan would hold the lead until lap 106 when he was passed by Panther Racing Dan Wheldon. Kanaan would make a pit stop shortly after.
Briscoe would pass Wheldon on lap 114 and then the races final caution came out on lap 123 when Tony Kanaan hit the turn 2 wall. Briscoe would lead the lead on a round of pit stops, Franchitti would regain the lead.
When the race restarted, Briscoe and Franchitti would battle for the race lead. Franchitti held the top spot laps 126 through 137, Briscoe 138-194 and then Franchitti 195-197. Both of them would make a pit stop.
Danica Patrick would regain the lead on lap 198 and hold on to that on lap 199 before making her final pit stop of the race. this handed the lead back over to Dario Franchitti.
Franchitti lead the final 50 laps in the race to go on and win his 2nd Iowa Corn Indy 250 in just 2 trys, he won in 2007 and raced nascar in 2008 so did't race last years race. He won by 5.0132 seconds over Team Penske Driver Ryan Briscoe. Hideki Mutoh was 3rd, Dan Wheldon in 4th and Scott Dixon was 5th. Top 4 cars remained on the lead lap.
Tomas Scheckter, Helio Castroneves, Mike Conway, Danica Patrick was all 1 lap down and Ed Carpenter was 2 laps down rounded out the top 10. Graham Rahal, Marco Andretti, Jacques Lazier, Tony Kanaan, Robert Doornbos, Raphael Matos, Mario Moraes, Justin Wilson, Ryan Hunter-Reay and E.J. Viso.
There was 40, 192 people in attendance for the Iowa Corn Indy 250 which learned that there is a 2 year contract extension to run the Iowa Corn Indy 250 presented by ethanol means there will be a Indy race through at least 2011.
I took photos from the race and you can check them out by clicking on this link: http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y27/foxman17/2009%20Iowa%20Corn%20Indy%20250/
So until next week have fun, drink a lot of water to stay hydrated. See you at the races soon.
