Tidbits from Iowa Race

The Iowa Corn Indy 250 on Sunday provided some interesting tidbits:

■ After contact with Scott Dixon’s car, the Mazak sponsorship on Helio Castroneves’ car’s front wing was very visible when the end piece went flying across the track. Mazak Corporation is the manufacturing, sales and support division in North America of the leading international machine tool builder, Yamazaki Mazak Corporation of Japan. Headquarters of the division are in Florence, KY, and, according to their Website, recently expanded.

■ Seeing Dad’s Root Beer as the major sponsor of the #24 driven by Mike Conway for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing on Father’s Day was refreshing—no pun intended. Dad’s was unveiled as a sponsor last year at Chicagoland. The root beer brand originated in Chicago and is now headquartered in Jasper, IN.

■ Mike Conway’s major sponsor at the Indy 500 was Purex. The team, however, was shown on Indianapolis television making or attempting to concoct root beer floats with Dad’s Root Beer late one day in their garage. John Andretti, a teammate for the race, was not as adept at making floats as Mike or female team member Milka Duno for the associate sponsor.

■ Milka Duno wasn’t entered at Iowa. According to Scott Goodyear, who had spoken to team owner Robbie Buhl before the ABC broadcast, she will not be participating but in a few more races.

■ A newer D&R teammate, Tomas Scheckter, took quite a chance early in the race acquiring six positions by outrunning the field on the high side. For spectators, it appeared a dangerous move—and not unusual for the aggressive and risk-taking driver—until the fact that the rain-soaked track didn’t have marbles in the high line at that time of the race was realized. How many teams has TS driven for in his IndyCar career? He drove for Dale Coyne Racing for the most recent Indianapolis 500 after finding sponsorship.

■ Dan Wheldon led the race for eight laps. He was the only one outside the three big teams (Penske, Ganassi and Andretti-Green) to lead a lap. He may be the only one able to give them a run for the money. Kudos to the driver for always mentioning lessons he’s learned from the National Guardsmen, his sponsor, during interviews. It’s a unique but seemingly heartfelt way to mention the sponsorship.

■ Target Chip Ganassi Racing cars painted a color other than the usual red and white have always gone on to victory circle—until Dario Franchitti and the neon green TomTom car failed to win at Texas. Today he changed the tradition—he won on the second attempt with the car. It was also his second attempt and win at Iowa.

Other notes:
■ Good timing—the IndyCar race ended in time for race fans to also see the NASCAR race.
■ In a TNT interview, Dan Gurney shared that moving from a lightweight open-wheel car to a stock car was a challenge—like going from a waterbug skimming a liquid surface and changing direction in nanoseconds to trying to drive an aircraft carrier and waiting for a response.
■ Was that Pat Sullivan, known for announcing at IndyCar and USAC races, on the public address system at the NASCAR race?
■ Former IndyCar driver Tony Stewart is still atop the NASCAR driver standings. The IndyStar reported this past week that TS is considering a third car for his team as a result of successes so far this year. Danica?