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Strong Sixth Place for Alexander Rossi in Iowa Corn 300
Sun 10, Jul, 2016

Alexander Rossi secured a strong sixth place finish in the Iowa Corn 300, finishing top rookie once more in his third oval race, and leading the Andretti Autosport quartet. The Californian collected 28 more valuable points to add to his Championship tally, where he now sits on 286 overall, with today’s result moving Alexander up to 7th in the Driver Rankings.

It may be the shortest track on the Verizon IndyCar Series schedule, but Iowa Speedway is one of the most demanding. At but 0.894 of a mile in length, the rural Iowa oval drives more like a superspeedway with its higher banking that demands carrying consistent speed throughout the lap. And with such short straights, it places the cars and drivers in a near constant state of turning left, exposing them to consistent gravitational forces exceeding 5 Gs or more.

The two day race weekend kicked off with a 75-minute morning practice session on Saturday, allowing the 22-car field to dial in setups ahead of afternoon qualifying on the 0.894-mile oval. Rookie and reigning Indianapolis 500 winner Alexander turned the most laps in the session; 125, nearly half of Sunday’s race distance. The American’s best lap in the session was 17.4584 seconds (184.347 mph), putting the No. 98 Castrol Edge/Curb Honda for Andretti Herta Autosport 11th quickest overall.

The afternoon qualifying session was met with higher temperatures, and the conditions threw up questions for Alexander and the team. The American could only achieve a grid position of 17th, after hitting an average speed of 180.920mph. Five years ago, teammate Marco Andretti won the race from that start position, and with the Championship battle still open, Alexander knew there was an opportunity to score valuable points in the following day’s race. A final 30 minute practice session in the cool of the evening, with Alexander turning another 39 laps ahead of the race.

Sunday’s race was met with similar temperatures to qualifying, and as the flags waved green Alexander was able to make a clean start from the middle of the pack. As the 300 laps began to unfold, Alexander started his charge through the field, taking the lead briefly on lap 61 as the pit stop strategies began to play out. The eventful race saw yellows aplenty, with many coming at unlucky times for the Californian driver who was battling hard with a strong car and excellent tire management. As the final yellows played out, Alexander ran the last phase of the race in 6th, crossing the finish line as the front-runner of the Andretti Autosport quartet, and collecting 28 more valuable points in the overall Championship fight.

The IndyCar Series now heads to Toronto, a 1.75 mile street circuit, and round 11 of the 2016 season.

Bryan Herta: “Really pleased overall. We battled from a tough starting position and frankly that was the name of the game for us; the yellows didn’t fall in our favor and we couldn’t really get the track position. I think we had a car capable of even more than sixth, but we are really pleased with that result after starting from 17th. Alexander ran another great race and now we look on to Toronto, which is one of my favorite stops.”

Alexander Rossi: “Qualifying was tough. The track warmed up quite a bit from practice where I was happy with the car and that penalized us. Starting 17th made our life hard for today’s race. I think we were unlucky in terms of the yellows when they came out because our strength today was in the second half of our tire life. We had really, really good tire life and everyone else was struggling. We were able to stay out but we were never able to take advantage of that. None-the-less we achieved a good result from where we started and we’re looking forward to Toronto.”