NEWTON, Iowa (July 22, 2023) — “We’ve got to try something different for tomorrow,” Larry Foyt told his team after the Hy-Vee Homefront 250 in which both drivers, veteran and rookie, struggled in the 250-lap race around Iowa Speedway’s high banks.

Moments after the race the drivers and engineers were debriefing in the engineering transporter as they tried to analyze why the cars were so difficult to drive. Once they sort it out, they will have a 10-minute warm-up session tomorrow morning to confirm they’re headed in the right direction.

Today Santino Ferrucci started 25th in the No. 14 while Benjamin Pedersen started 28th in the No. 55; an issue with the technical inspection resulted in Pedersen not being allowed to qualify.

In the pre-race show, Country-Western singer Carrie Underwood performed for an hour as part of the Hy-Vee high entertainment weekend booked around the twin 250-lap events.

The race got underway with Will Power setting a torrid pace that only his teammates could maintain for the first 120 laps. Josef Newgarden took the lead on lap 12, relinquished it for a lap during his pitstop and was never headed thereafter. Scott McLaughlin, Pato O’Ward, Marcus Ericsson and Power (who lightly brushed the wall on lap 145, dropping him two spots down in the order), rounded out the top five. Ericsson passed Power on lap 211 for fourth. The top-five cars were the only ones on the lead lap.

Not on the lead lap were the Foyt cars, who went a lap down early in the race as it became quickly apparent that whatever problems they had in Friday’s practice were not fixed in time for Saturday’s race. They would eventually finish multiple laps down, but despite it all, they did finish the race which was slowed by just one caution on lap 152 when Graham Rahal hit the wall in Turn 4 after getting into the marbles. Ferrucci placed 26th and Pedersen 27th.

The Hy-Vee One Step 250 will be broadcast tomorrow afternoon on NBC starting at 2 p.m. ET.

Race Report: Hy-Vee One Step 250

NEWTON, Iowa (July 23, 2023) — “It’s deja vu all over again!”

Unfortunately, the famous quote by New York Yankees legendary catcher Yogi Berra applied all too well today as both Santino Ferrucci and Benjamin Pedersen found themselves struggling with ill-handling cars in a race that saw Josef Newgarden sweep the card again and lap everyone but the top five in the 28-car field.

Ferrucci’s troubles began early as he went a lap down before the Hy-Vee One Step 250 was 25 laps in. Both drivers took adjustments on numerous pit stops which improved the cars. Ferrucci’s car became manageable by the final two stints but it was not enough.

Pedersen finished 27th while Ferrucci came home 22nd albeit five laps down from the leader. When Ryan Hunter-Reay tagged the fourth turn wall with 10 laps to go, the race’s third caution closed up the field. Because it was within 10 laps, it was an unusual sight to see all but five cars run through pit lane to allow the top five cars on the lead lap to contend for the victory.

Newgarden was not to be denied even though teammate Will Power shot past Felix Rosenqvist to make it one-two for Team Penske. Rounding out the top five were Alex Palou, Rosenqvist and Scott McLaughlin.

The next race is the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix in Nashville on Sunday, August 6th.