pressdog Does Newton, Day 1

Yo yo yo from the media center at Iowa Speedway in tony Newton, Iowa.

Click below for the latest highlights. Last updated on 6/22/07 at 5:45 p.m. Central.

Couple highlights so far: Driving over from Des Moines on Interstate 80 this morning it hit me that the drive from Newton to Des Moines is basically Iowa in a nutshell. Corn and soybean fields, farms houses, livestock, hills, plains, small downs and the big city of Des Moines (metro population about 400,000). Pretty stuff, especially to an Iowan. All we need is a big old ethanol plant along the interstate and we're set.

The town of Mitchellville, population 2,500-ish, is between Des Moines and Newton, just off I-80. Fathers who have daughters suck in their breath a little when they go by Mitchellville, because it's the home of the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women (translation: prison). The only all-female prison in the state that I know of. I'm sure Mitchellville has a lot going for it, but I only know it for the prison, so that makes "visiting your daughter at Mitchellville" the nightmare scenario for fathers.

Once at the track, I was pleased to note that the tram in from the parking lot was pulled by a right-sexy John Deere tractor. I wiped a manly tear. The very first person I saw who I recognized was Rick Mears on a Penske scooter. I turned away, because I am not worthy to look upon him. Then I saw the Black Widow tending to Danica's car. Speaking of Mitchellville. Kidding. I kid Danica. She's my pick to win this thing.

Media center itself is a shrine to the Super Deuce with pictures of Rusty Wallace all over the place. I bask in the glow.

Weather is crappy. Windy and overcast and cold. Supposed to clear off and be sunny and 80-ish today. Indy Pro Series cars on the track practicing right now. Gotta go out and snort some ethanol exhaust. Check for periodic updates here.

If you have anything you want the 'dog to investigate here at the track, post a comment and I'll do my best for ya. I'm the voice of the fan and all that. Word.

11:54 a.m.

One of the fun things being the local guy is hearing what the non-locals say about po-dunk Iowa. Guy behind me in the media center was on the phone and he said another town was a "hog trough" compared to Des Moines. Des Moines is super clean, this guy says. It is, for the most part, but I could show him a few things. Glad he was impressed. People's expectations are pretty low coming here, so when they see that we have modern stuff, even cool stuff, even -- gasp -- hip stuff, they kind of flip out.

Landing at the Des Moines airport people are amazed that it has jetways and everything, and that the pilot didn't have to buzz the runway first to scare the cattle off it before landing. Guys behind me are checking out the Des Moines Register, which is FROTHING in their coverage of this race. Many mad props to the Register.

Another guy said coming into Iowa last night in the midst of a thunderstorm was like "stepping into hell." Yeah, an Iowa thunderstorm will do that to ya. Very Wizard of Oz-ish. I would not be surprised to see some old hag on a bike go flying by during a thunderstorm. Auntie Em!

IPS practice just got done. People are all like, "Wow, they're fast." I'm thinking, "Just wait until the ICS cars get on the track." The IPS cars sound more like stock cars. Deeper, more throaty noise. The ICS cars are higher pitched. They sound more wound up. Darren Manning and the Iceman spent some quality time at the far turn 1 end of pit road earlier. Touching.

Said "what up" to my girl Sarah Fisher this morning. She's good people. She was hanging out outside her hauler. Buddy Rice was on the phone. Something high-level, I'm sure. Felt wired. Sarah's PR boy Klint Briney is hyper sidepod worthy. Just sayin.' Sarah said the jury is still out on whether or not she's heading to Knoxville Raceway to watch some dirt fly tonight.

I told Sarah I would pay "upper three figures" to see her vs. Danica on the dirt at Knoxville. She laughed and told me that Danica would probably smoke her in an Atlantic (street/road course) car. Fine. If you MUST be fair, Sarah. But you are seriously derailing my rage train. Klint said Sarah is getting lots of media attention. Fab.

FYI, the media center has a concession stand attached, so it kind of smells like I'm typing at a KFC.

1:44 p.m.

During a walk about in the pits, I came across Dan Wheldon, doing an interview right outside the Chippy team hauler. Dan was looking resplendent, I gotta say, in his red fire suit, dark shades and blue puma racing boots. Gotta give ya a couple thumbs up on the hair products today, Dan. Striking. While Dan was giving a TV interview, Danica's mechanics, led by the Black Widow, just HAPPENED to be revving her car. Making some "adjustments."

The resulting roar was interfering with Dan's interview. Sucked to be the sound guy on that one. I asked Dan's assistant if Danica's posse was perhaps playing with Dan a little (confession: I wouldn't be above it) and she looked at me like I had a crack pipe hanging out of my mouth. She didn't think Danica's team would do such a thing. (Must be new to racing.)

After Dan was done, he and I had a moment. I'm wearing some pressdog gear today in the delusional hope that people will recognize "the mark" and the further fantasy that thousands of people will RUSH to my cafepress site and buy many articles of clothing for their entire Christmas list. These fantasies get me through the day and are less physically and financially costly than alcohol.

Anyway, Dan acted as if he recognized me. I ask him, I swear to God, "What's up with the shoes? How do you decide what shoes to wear?" Dan always wears some colorful shoes. Red, white, yellow ... today they are blue. Dan laughed -- chortled, even -- and replied, "It just depends on how I'm feeling." I gave him a sincere shout out for today's selection -- royal blue Puma's with white stripes and a little British flag on the inside of the heel. Magic.

Over to the Honda tent to see my boy Dan "Coach" Layton, PR giant for Honda. Dan builds his own cars, so I may not be worthy to look at him. I told Danno that if Honda could arrange to have one to three engines frag during the racing, preferably very colorfully, that would enhance my personal excitement. Dan didn't seem amenable to my suggestion. Friggin' Honda's are so reliable and frag-resistant as to be boring. Perhaps if I fed the engineers lots of beer.

Down from the Honda tent a few feet and there was Dario Franchitti. Let me just stop a second to reiterate that Dario is, in fact, a right-sexy wee bastard. That's documented, right there. Dario looks like a guy who has won the Indy 500 -- extremely happy. Dario ducked back in the AGR tent before I could fall at his feet and weep openly as is my custom with all Indy 500 winners. No sign of Ashley yet.

Confession: I missed the press conference featuring Danica, Dan, Hornish and Marco. Didn't get the memo. Odds are nobody asked any of them what their favorite beer was, and that's about as technical as we get here at pressdog.

I did get the following completely non-made up story from a double-secret source: While driving the motor home up here from the test at Mid-Ohio, T.J. Patrick got pulled over by one of Illinois' finest. Teej was speeding. Got busted by a state patrol guy. BAAAAAAA. Apparently Danica thought this was perhaps the funniest  thing that has happened on planet Earth. The kicker is, the guy let T.J. go with a warning. Dude. Still, where do I send my donation to the Illinois highway patrol fund?

The trophy for this race is a little green, old-school gas pump. About four feet tall. I'll try to scare up a photo of it. Very cool.

4:24 p.m.

It's raining at the Iowa Speedway. Sucks to be us. Practice is delayed for now.

I now have four beers in me, and it's not my fault. First of all, I ask you, if you had to choose between paying $3 for beer and $2.50 for soda, which would you choose? Also, the beer seller in front of the grandstands sells 24 oz. Tecata beer, which is imported from Mexico. I thought I was at a Champ Car event for a second. So I was FORCED to buy one of those. I asked the woman, "Tecate beer? In Newton, Iowa?" She shrugged and said, "People buy it." At 24 ounces for $7, it's your best beer value.

IndyCar practice got rockin' and within about 40 minutes Scott "Iceman" Dixon had put up a 180.657 mph, which was A NEW TRACK RECORD, and I'm reasonably sure he did that driving one handed. Later Sam and Helio took over with Sam posting a 182.129 mph. Dan and Dixon were three and four.

If you're coming to the race Saturday, you'll want to take advantage of the "Shopping Shuttle" which will take you from the campground to tony downtown Newton and back. Pick up some designer duds and come on back for more racing.

Saw a couple of Dale Jr. t-shirts in the crowd. Did not leap upon them screaming "THIS IS AN OPEN-WHEEL RACE, PUNK." Even in my liquored-up state. Proud of that. Also saw a Knoxville Sprint Car Racing shirt and a John Force (drag racer) shirt. We're eclectic race fans here in Iowa.

Earlier my boy, Eric Mauk, PR king for Rahal, said that the corn growers are turning out. Maybe 800 to 1,000 are expected to show up at the hospitality tent. We love the ethanol here. Also, Club Patron took some wind damage last night. I'm sure it will be up and running again tonight. Takes more than wind to shut down Club Patron. The women who work the booth are all 6 feet tall and wear 4-inch shoes. They are not afraid of some Iowa wind.

For real news from Iowa Speedway, rock on over to tracksideonline.com and sign up. My boy Patrick is here representing. He shoots out periodic email updates for the hard-core.

On my way back to the infield from my perch atop the grandstands, some guy jumped off the tram and may have seriously damaged himself. Swear to God: We're on the tram that goes from the grandstands, through the tunnel to the infield. Suddenly people are screaming for the guy who is driving the tractor pulling the tram to stop. He stops and they bail out. I finally figured out that a guy had jumped off the tram to grab something that had fallen off and CRACKED his head on the pavement.

Big impact, from what my fellow tram riders said. The guy was down and motionless. Scary. A couple of people from the tram bailed out and raced back to the guy. Track EMTs were there in a flash. Not sure what's going to become of the dude.

5:39 p.m.

At 5 p.m. the IRL peeps announced  that stormy weather and rain had washed out the rest of the open test. Radar weather looks like an open wound, big splotches of blood-red "DANGER" spots all over. Welcome to Iowa in June.

Danny Wheldon and the Iceman just represented in a PC (press conference). Both said the track is fun. The track is physical. There are some bumps in 1 and 2. Dixon said it's a high-G-force track where you're basically pinned in the car, cartoonlike, through the corners. Crazy. Dixon said that it's like Richmond, only Richmond slacks off now and then, whereas Iowa just kind of kicks your ass continually due to the banking.

In response to Mel Hull's question (see comment section), I asked Icy if he felt the difference between the three levels of banking here. (Banking varies slightly on the high, middle and low line here.) Thus Spaketh the Ice Man:

"To be honest, you don't feel it that much. I think we're talking  a degree maybe for each level so it is hard to feel. You feel the seams more so than the grip levels. I think that's only because we have so much much grip in the car. If you took the grip out of the car which would be less drag the cars would be way too fast. (Note: Indy Cars have to worry about being TOO FAST for humans to handle.) I think on any level of the track at the moment is very comfortable. You can definitely go low and middle (line) and I think during the race you're going to get more high as well."

Wheldon thought that passing would be an issues, since cars are pretty evenly matched and once they get side-by-side it might be difficult to overtake, especially on the high side where you have to go a further distance than the low side.

There was a relatively huge crowd here for practice today. Other tracks you have maybe 18 people, here we had a few hundred. I tried to warn the Indy PR posse that Iowa was geeked up for this race. Now they believe me.

That's it for today. Word to your posse. I'm rolling back to the dog house.

Comments

[bethmerchant_76]

If you have any pull with indycar.com, can you tell them the streaming video camera pointed through the window is very annoying ? Keep the posts coming-love the insider point of view!

So on your way to Newton this morning did you experience the other two Iowa traditions-Did you pass farm equipment on the highway and did you fuel up at the Kum & Go ? My husband's family is from Osceola, Iowa and those are 2 of our favorites.

[MoneyCJ]

Uh "Kum & Go..."

Come again?

[pressdog]

Yes, Kum & Go. It's a convenience chain. Seriously. Lots of convenience stores around the state. I forwarded the comment about the goofy camera to my league peeps. They may not be able to do jack about it, though. Still ..

[MoneyCJ]

Hm. Alrighty then.

You drinking yet?

[Mel Hull]

once first practice is complete would love to hear from a couple of drivers how the three different pitches of banking feel. When you see pictures of it; it doesn't look to severe, but I would like to know what it will feel like if you have to move between the different degrees of banking while negotiating through a turn....keep up the great updates!

>

You are so Iowa!! Sounds just like me (Dubuque).

Love the personal updates...I'll be at the IA IRL race next year!

[pressdog]

You gotta roll over from Dubuque. It's, what, an easy 3-hour drive. Book your hotel in Newton now-ish or you'll be staying in DM.

[My Name Is IRL]

What you have written about today - a freaking practice day - is like, oh, I don't know, a thousand times more interesting than whatever wire stories I will sift through tomorrow.

You are so the man, Dog. You don't need me to tell you that.

[MoneyCJ]

I second Jeffy's emotion. Pure brilliance. Good work, my man..

[bethmerchant_76]

Just wanted to say Thanks for forwarding the message about the cameras to INDYCAR.com. They did something to them between the Pro qualifying and the test time. No more window makes it a lot easier to see the race track !

Agree-what you had to say about today's events doesn't even compare to the timeline wrap up spelled out on Indycar.com (but God bless them for the streaming video !)

[Dale Nixon]

Are they serving grain punch anywhere at the Speedway?

Enjoy - believe it or not I almost made the road trip for this one - corn-fed midwestern girls in summer are hard to resist, as are 17-second lap times!