Honda Indycar Iowa Message Points

Iowa Corn 300
Iowa Speedway, Newton, Iowa
5 p.m. EDT Sunday, July 9, 2017
NBC Sports Network
IMS Radio Network Live Stream and Broadcast
COMPETITION

• Honda comes to Iowa Speedway having scored six victories in 2017, and leads the Verizon IndyCar Series Manufacturers’ Championship with 820 points to 774 points for rival Chevrolet.

• Honda’s most recent victory came at Road America last month, as Scott Dixon scored his first win of 2017 and increased his lead in the Verizon IndyCar Series drivers’ championship. With 379 points, he now leads defending series champion Simon Pagenaud by 34 points after 10 of 17 races.

• Earlier in June, Graham Rahal swept both rounds of Detroit Grand Prix doubleheader race weekend. Rahal led a Honda 1-2-3 result on Saturday, with Dixon and James Hinchcliffe finishing second and third, respectively. On Sunday, Rahal came from third on the grid to complete his weekend sweep.

• Other Honda winners this year include Sebastien Bourdais at the season-opening Grand Prix of St. Petersburg; and Hinchcliffe at the Grand Prix of Long Beach in April. Each of the five Honda-powered teams in the Verizon IndyCar Series has won at least one race this year.

• Takuma Sato’s Indianapolis 500 victory in May was Honda’s 12th Indy triumph in the last 14 years. Sato currently is ranked fourth in the drivers’ championship, with 323 points.

• In 17 appearances in the Indianapolis 500, Honda already has more wins at Indianapolis than any other major automobile manufacturer.

• Drivers and teams using Honda engines have won 225 Indy car races, both during years of multi-manufacturer competition (2004-05, 2012- ); and during Honda’s tenure as single engine supplier to the series (2006-11).

• Since its founding in 1993, Honda Performance Development (HPD), the racing arm of the American Honda Motor Co., Inc., has grown from just a handful of staffers to approximately 150 associates; and from an engine-rebuilding facility, focused on a single racing series, to a complete motorsports Research & Development organization. HPD is currently engaged in programs ranging from the Verizon IndyCar Series, Pirelli World Challenge and IMSA WeatherTech Championship to grassroots and entry-level categories including karting, Quarter Midgets and the new SCCA Formula 4 Championship.

HONDA AT IOWA SPEEDWAY

• The Verizon IndyCar Series visits Iowa Speedway for the second of three short-oval races this season. With a lap distance of just 0.89 miles, the banked Iowa track is the shortest circuit on the 2016 schedule.

• Honda drivers have scored seven wins in 10 races at Iowa Speedway.

• In 2015, Honda’s Ryan Hunter-Reay won for the second consecutive year, successfully battling Josef Newgarden as the pair repeated its 1-2 finish from the previous season.

• As the engine supplier to the IndyCar Series from 2006-2011, Honda powered the winner of the first five races at Iowa Speedway, beginning with Dario Franchitti at the inaugural 2007 event. Franchitti won again in 2009.

• Other Honda-powered race winners at Iowa include the late Dan Wheldon (2008), Tony Kanaan (2010) and Marco Andretti (2011).

HONDA RACING/HPD VIDEOS

• Video recaps from this weekend’s Honda Indy car racing action in Iowa, and Acura Motorsports activities in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at Canadian Tire Motorsprots Park, are being posted on the “Honda Racing/HPD” YouTube channel.

• Produced by the Carolinas Production Group, the video packages can be found in the 2017 HPD Trackside Video Playlist at: https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV