Enough about all that. You come here for numbers. And, numbers you shall receive!
Iowa Corn 250 Scores
| Finish | Driver | Qualifying | Grid | Laps Led | Completed | ARS | RSWC Points |
| 1 | Hinchcliffe | 3 | 2 | 226 | 250 | 98.57 | 25 |
| 2 | Hunter-Reay | 14 | 12 | 0 | 250 | 69.82 | 18 |
| 3 | Kanaan | 8 | 5 | 0 | 250 | 60.75 | 15 |
| 4 | Carpenter | 6 | 4 | 18 | 250 | 59.69 | 12 |
| 5 | Rahal | 9 | 6 | 1 | 250 | 59.20 | 10 |
| 6 | Pagenaud | 11 | 8 | 0 | 250 | 58.39 | 8 |
| 7 | Servia | 10 | 7 | 0 | 250 | 52.79 | 6 |
| 8 | Castroneves | 1 | 11 | 0 | 250 | 44.37 | 2 |
| 9 | Andretti | 4 | 3 | 0 | 250 | 42.27 | 1 |
| 10 | Viso | 19 | 16 | 0 | 250 | 50.06 | 4 |
| 11 | Wilson | 13 | 10 | 5 | 249 | 40.21 | |
| 12 | Kimball | 17 | 14 | 0 | 249 | 35.80 | |
| 13 | Vautier | 15 | 13 | 0 | 248 | 32.69 | |
| 14 | Bourdais | 22 | 19 | 0 | 248 | 33.96 | |
| 15 | Newgarden | 16 | 22 | 0 | 248 | 27.60 | |
| 16 | Dixon | 5 | 15 | 0 | 247 | 23.86 | |
| 17 | Power | 2 | 1 | 0 | 247 | 9.19 | |
| 18 | Jakes | 21 | 24 | 0 | 247 | 23.78 | |
| 19 | Saavedra | 20 | 18 | 0 | 247 | 13.63 | |
| 20 | Franchitti | 24 | 21 | 0 | 246 | 18.78 | |
| 21 | de Silvestro | 23 | 20 | 0 | 243 | 9.35 | |
| 22 | Beatriz | 18 | 23 | 0 | 183 | 8.66 | |
| 23 | Sato | 7 | 17 | 0 | 162 | 2.61 | |
| 24 | Tagliani | 12 | 9 | 0 | 139 | 0.07 |
- Intriguing that the Top 10 in the race wind up scoring RSWC points. Even more intriguing that P1-P7 are in order. I guess that's what happens when one driver leads ALL THE LAPS. Ok, so not all the laps. But, it was close.
- I did, at one point, loudly proclaim on Twitter that Graham Rahal was a destroyer of worlds. In retrospect, the term destroyer of worlds should probably be reserved for Mike-Conway-at-Belle-Isle type performances. In the moment, however, I was watching Graham Rahal both slice and dice through the field. Let us recall that this is Graham Rahal. He has had a TERRIBLE year! George Phillips, who writes at Oil Pressure did an entire post called "Will Graham Rahal Ever Turn Things Around?" Anyway, the point is that Graham was looking MUCH better than he's looked at any point this season. Plus, in my defense, Graham had the second-best Average Running Position in the race. (It's hard to do better than Hinch did...) So, not a destroyer of worlds, but at least a damage-er of asteroids. Well done, Graham.
- Servia did quite well. This man needs a ride next year. #SaveOriol. Seriously
- If it weren't for bad luck, Marco Andretti would have no luck at all. Marco tweeted yesterday that he had a problem with one of his shocks, and thus fell out of contention. Still, he picks up one big-time RSWC point. He goes home for the Pocono race in two weeks, and maybe his luck will change with a little home cooking...
- Finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't remark on Ryan Hunter-Reay. Average Running Position of 8.73 (mostly due to having to change his nose). Fell as low as P21 (entirely because he had to change his nose). Charges through the field, and just misses on challenging for the win because of lapped traffic (you have to time these things just right...) Big time run by RHR, which goes a long way toward closing in on Helio for the RSWC lead.
Race Score World Championship Update
Speaking of that, here are the new standings for the RSWC (F1-style points for IndyCar race scores)
| Driver | RCWC Points | Points Back |
| Castroneves | 115 | 0 |
| Hunter-Reay | 109 | -6 |
| Sato | 76 | -39 |
| Andretti | 74 | -41 |
| Kanaan | 74 | -41 |
| Pagenaud | 68 | -47 |
| Dixon | 64 | -51 |
| Hinchcliffe | 55 | -60 |
| Conway | 43 | -72 |
| Newgarden | 43 | -72 |
| Wison | 43 | -72 |
| Franchitti | 39 | -76 |
| Viso | 31 | -84 |
| Kimball | 28 | -87 |
| Carpenter | 26 | -89 |
| Rahal | 23 | -92 |
| Power | 21 | -94 |
| Servia | 18 | -97 |
| Munoz | 12 | -103 |
| Bourdais | 8 | -107 |
| Jakes | 8 | -107 |
| Tagliani | 7 | -108 |
| de Silvestro | 6 | -109 |
| Hildebrand | 4 | -111 |
| Allmendinger | 4 | -111 |
| Briscoe | 1 | -114 |
- Ok, so I lied. I said we were going to score the third heat race. We're not going to. Without a lap chart, we'd have to use the old formula, and the old formula is weird with just ten cars, such as were in the heat. So, we didn't do it.
- Castroneves and Hunter-Reay have distanced themselves a little bit from the field. As recently as the end of the Belle Isle double header there were ten cars within 25 points of the lead. Now, there are not. There are two. The good news is that since Helio and RHR have built up this gap in just three races, it can be erased just as quickly. If Hinch gets consistent; if Marco catches a break; or if Pagenaud can string together some higher finishes; this can tighten up FAST.
Prediction Review
Here we go again...
- #IowaCorn250 Prediction 1) A break-out performance for Graham Rahal. Finishes and scores Top 10.
- VERDICT - YES! Yes indeed. Good job, Guido. Maybe you're not terrible on ovals. 1 for 1.
- #IowaCorn250 Prediction 2) Takuma Sato finds a way to score some RSWC points.
- VERDICT - Nope. Nope, nope, nope, nope. 1 for 2.
- #IowaCorn250 Prediction 3) Your winner: Marco Andretti (making it an Iowa sweep for Nazareth, PA)
- VERDICT - Nope. See my comments above about Marco having no luck but for bad luck. 1 for 3.
- #IowaCorn250 Prediction 4) Helio Castroneves (buoyed by points in his heat and starting farther back than he should) keeps his RSWC lead.
- VERDICT - Yes, Helio does keep his lead. Barely (and without heat race points), but he does! 2 for 4. I'll take 50% on an oval at this point...
Stay Tuned
With no race this weekend, I'll be doing another "Most Surprising / Least Surprising" post on Friday. Looking back at LOTS of numbers, and pulling out the interesting ones. Should be fun!
See you then!
-- Guido
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