American drivers show IndyCar resurgence with top-four sweep in Iowa
NEWTON, Iowa – For most of the 20th century, it was Indy car racing that was considered as America’s form of auto racing while NASCAR was viewed as a regional sport based in the Southeast. American drivers such at A.J. Foyt, Bill Vukovich, Al and Bobby Unser, Jimmy Bryan, Wilbur Shaw, Rick Mears, Johnny Rutherford, Parnelli Jones and others gave this form of racing a true red-white-and-blue feel to the sport. When foreign drivers such as Jack Brabham, Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill, Jochen Rindt and Denis Hulme came to the Indianapolis 500 in the 1960s, it was big news.
In the last two decades of the 20th century, as street and road courses were added to the schedule, the driver mix in Indy car racing began to take on a foreign flavor. Combine that with the rapid ascension of NASCAR during that time and the balance of drivers in IndyCar had a foreign-dominated field. NASCAR was no longer a Southeast sport but a national racing series and the big names in American racing became stock car drivers instead of IndyCar drivers.
That is why Saturday night’s 1-2-3-4 sweep of drivers from the United States in the Iowa Corn 300 in the heartland of America was so important to the Verizon IndyCar Series. The numbers get even more impressive when you see that six of the top seven drivers in the race are from the United States.
American driver Ryan Hunter-Reay of Florida won the race defeating fellow USA drivers Josef Newgarden of Tennessee, Sage Karam of Pennsylvania and Graham Rahal of Ohio. Carlos Munoz of Colombia crashed the American celebration with a fifth-place finish but was followed by Ed Carpenter of Illinois and Marco Andretti of Pennsylvania.
With television ratings for the Verizon IndyCar Series showing impressive gains this season, America is witnessing a resurgence of drivers from the United States in IndyCar racing.
“That’s pretty cool,” said team owner Michael Andretti, whose driver won the race and his son finished seventh at Iowa Speedway. “I think it shows we have good American drivers. It’s cool to do it in Iowa because this is the heartland so this is a nice bonus.”
Andretti was involved in the last American sweep of an IndyCar race in the 2006 Indianapolis 500 when Sam Hornish, Jr. of Ohio was the winner followed by Marco Andretti and Michael Andretti.
“I think it's always great when Americans do well,” Michael Andretti said. “It's very important to note that it's an international series and there's international drivers. So when the Americans do well and they beat the rest of the world, it's always great. To do it here in the heartland, to do a 1-2-3-4, it's pretty cool.”
Hunter-Reay is the last driver from the United States to win a Verizon IndyCar Series championship (2012) and the last driver from the USA to win the Indianapolis 500 (2014).
He is IndyCar’s American star and believes it’s important to have great drivers from the United States in the sport.
“It goes to show we have a lot of American talent in this series,” Hunter-Reay said. “That is definitely not our shortcoming. I think this is a great race to show it. What a great racetrack. It’s a small oval and promotes some great racing.
“Short oval racing, IndyCar style, you can’t beat it.”
At least one driver from the United States wonders why it isn’t enough to lure more fans to the Verizon IndyCar Series.
“It’s cool but it doesn’t sell tickets for whatever reason,” Rahal said after finishing fourth. “I would like to be Captain America. I hope it fills the grandstands one day if that is what they want.”
At 20, Karam is the youngest driver in the field and hopes to one day become an American star in IndyCar.
“That’s awesome,” Karam said of the USA performance Saturday night. “It’s an American sport, babe.”
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