NEWTON, Iowa -- Scattered rain across the state cut short the initial Verizon IndyCar Series practice for the Iowa Corn Indy 300 presented by DEKALB and created a revised schedule for practice and qualifications.
Practice on the .894-mile Iowa Speedway oval will be held from 1:45-3:15 p.m. (Central) and single-car qualifications will be held at 6 p.m. (Central) pending the weather conditions. The revised schedule puts a premium on practice. Essentially, the second session and qualifying were swapped.
If qualifications are rained out, the field for the 300-lap race will be set by entrant points. Championship points leader Will Power, driver of the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske car, would start from the pole. Helio Castroneves, second in the standings, would join Power on the front row. Power is dealing with bronchitis.
Click it: Qualifications order || Practice results
The morning session was limited to 19 minutes, with James Hinchcliffe setting the pace in the No. 27 United Fiber & Data car for Andretti Autosport with a lap of 17.5249 seconds (183.647 mph). Tony Kanaan, driving the No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing car, was second (17.5330 seconds; 183.562 mph) and series rookie Carlos Munoz was third (17.5768; 183.105) in the No. 34 Cinsay AndrettiTV.com HVM car.
Hinchcliffe won the 250-lap race at Iowa Speedway last June, while Kanaan was the 2010 race winner while with Andretti Autosport. The team has won five of the seven Verizon IndyCar Series races at the variably-banked oval, including the past four.
"I've had four podium finishes in a row here and hopefully we'll get our first win of the year," Kanaan said. "The biggest thing about Iowa Speedway is the feel of speed because of how short it is."
The 22-car field in practice was separated by one second.
“It’s fast racing, multiple lanes, so it’s a lot of fun wheel-to-wheel action," said team owner/driver Ed Carpenter, who finished fourth in last year's race. "I like the type of racing that’s close and fast and multiple lanes. It’s always nice when the high line develops, which usually can here.”
NBCSN's race telecast starts at 7 p.m. (Central) July 12. Leigh Diffey is the chief announcer, with Paul Tracy and David Hobbs the analysts.
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