Josef Newgarden’s domination of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES’ oval races in recent year is real. He has won six of the past seven races, nine of the past 12 and 10 of the past 16.

But here’s something even more profound: Newgarden has 14 oval wins since joining Team Penske for the 2017 season. The rest of the active drivers? Wait for it.

Fourteen combined.

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Scott Dixon has won five for Chip Ganassi Racing, Will Power five for Team Penske.

Pato O’Ward has won twice for Arrow McLaren. Alexander Rossi won the 2018 race at Pocono Raceway for Andretti Global, and Marcus Ericsson won the 2022 Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge for Chip Ganassi Racing. That’s it.

Newgarden has been winning oval races seemingly everywhere. In that span, he has won five times at Iowa Speedway, the site of this weekend’s Hy-Vee INDYCAR Race Weekend. He won at Phoenix International Raceway (2018) and three times each at Texas Motor Speedway (2019, 2022 and 2023) and World Wide Technology Raceway (2020, 2021 and 2022).

And, of course, he has won the past two “500s” at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Exactly half of Newgarden’s 30 career series wins have come on oval tracks, a circuit balance comparable to Dixon’s. The six-time series champion has 22 oval wins among the 58 overall for his career (38 percent).

Power is the only other driver in this weekend’s 27-car field with more than three oval wins – he has nine. Ed Carpenter has three while Graham Rahal, Alexander Rossi and Pato O’Ward have two each, and Ericsson has one.

Glaring by omission is championship leader Alex Palou, who does not have any oval track race wins in his career. The Spaniard believes he likely will need to score at least one to capture his second consecutive series title and third championship in the past four years. Time will tell. He enters this weekend’s doubleheader with nearly a full-race lead on Power, his nearest competitor. Eight races remain.

Newgarden Literally Leads Way

Newgarden doesn’t just lead all drivers in race wins at Iowa Speedway, he’s lapping the current field in laps led.

Try this on for size: Newgarden’s career total on the .875-mile oval is 1,847 laps led. The next-highest total among active drivers is Power with 383.

Dixon has led 131 laps at Iowa, and he’s the only other driver in this field with at least 100. O’Ward has led 97, Rahal 32. Carpenter 18. Palou has led just one lap, that coming in last year’s first race when he finished eighth.

Newgarden enters this doubleheader 143 points out of the series lead in pursuit of a third season championship. With Palou, the points leader who drives the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, having an average finish of 9.2 at this track, this is the golden opportunity for the driver of the No. 2 Hitachi Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet to make hay.

Dixon, Power at Iowa

Dixon and Power have enjoyed more than their share of success at Iowa Speedway; it just hasn’t been converted into race wins.

As difficult as it is to believe, neither has won a race at the track east of Des Moines. That’s a combined 37 starts (19 for Dixon, 18 for Power).

Meanwhile, Power has won a track-record seven poles, and Dixon added two more. As noted above, they have combined to lead 514 laps and finished in the top three of the race nine times. One or the other has finished on the podium in six of the past seven races.

Dixon hasn’t been as strong at Iowa in recent races. His last podium finish was in 2020, and he has led only six laps since 2014.

Power ranks second in the standings (-48) in the No. 12 Verizon Business Team Penske Chevrolet, Dixon is fourth (-71) in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.

New Variables This Weekend

While the driver to beat is obvious, the on-track variables are not.

This will be the first oval race where INDYCAR’s new hybrid technology will be available to teams and drivers. The energy recovery system passed its initial test with flying colors last week at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course as 26 of the 27 cars were running at the finish. How the drivers use it on the oval tracks will be fascinating to watch.

Iowa Speedway has had a partial repave since the last time the NTT INDYCAR SERIES raced there. The new asphalt begins at corner entry at both ends of the oval, continues through the corner and ends at exit. The inside line is where the new asphalt is, so expect much of the racing to be there. To help the second lane, there will be a special practice Friday.

Firestone is bringing a tire compound that’s different than the one used at the recent test. Also, INDYCAR has reduced downforce on the rear wing by about 10 percent.

All of this adds up to presenting a different challenge to the competitors.

Building Up the Lanes

The weekend’s on-track schedule begins with the field divided into two groups for 15 minutes of running to build a second lane in the corners. That session begins at 3:45 p.m. ET and will be followed by the only full practice of the event – it will span 90 minutes – at 4:30 p.m. ET.

Saturday’s action leads off with qualifying for both races at 3:45 p.m. ET followed by live coverage of the Hy-Vee Homefront 250 presented by Instacart at 8 p.m. (NBC, Peacock, INDYCAR Radio Network).

Sunday, NBC, Peacock and the INDYCAR Radio Network will begin coverage of the Hy-Vee One Step 250 presented by Gatorade at noon ET (NBC, Peacock, INDYCAR Radio Network).

Friday’s Pit Stop Challenge

Six NTT INDYCAR SERIES drivers and their crews will aim to win Friday’s $50,000 Pit Stop Challenge at the track.

The event will be held on pit lane at 8:30 p.m. ET.

The first round features the following pairings:

• Will Power (No. 12 Verizon Business Team Penske Chevrolet) vs. Sting Ray Robb (No. 41 Goodheart Vet/Pray.com Chevrolet of A.J. Foyt Enterprises)
• Christian Lundgaard (No. 45 Hy-Vee Honda of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing) vs. Jack Harvey (No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda)
• Rookie Nolan Siegel (No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet) vs. David Malukas (No. 66 AutoNation/Arctic Wolf Honda of Meyer Shank Racing)

The winner with the fastest time will advance to the finals, with the other two round winners meeting in the semifinals. The final round will be a best-of-three with alternating lanes used.