AR1 at Iowa Speedway

Ryan Hunter-Reay celebrates victory last season at Iowa Speedway

Greetings from a very hot, very humid Iowa Speedway. It's a few minutes after 5 p.m. local time and the Verizon IndyCar Series teams are going through some routine preparations ahead of this weekend's Iowa Corn 300. It's a pretty packed schedule this weekend as IndyCar is joined by Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires, Pro Mazda and the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards during the two-day event.

Similar to this past weekend in Milwaukee, the IndyCar Series will qualify a few hours before the race. Qualifying is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. Saturday, with the green flag scheduled for 7:45 p.m.

Having covered this event each of the past three years, I have come to learn that weather seems to always be a subject of discussion here in Central Iowa. Whether it is blazing heat and humidity or the projection of a seemingly Biblical storm, weather seems to always play a factor in the weekend. You might remember the start of last year's race was delayed about an hour due to heavy storms.

This morning, Newton, Iowa was hit with flash flooding totaling about 2 inches of rain earlier today. This followed heavy rains Wednesday in the area. Lucille Dust and I did a walk through pit lane earlier and noticed a number of track personnel, trucks and equipment in turn 4. Apparently, they are having an issue with weepers in turn 4. We spoke to member of the track staff, who didn't really care to elaborate, but the ground is pretty wet. We imagine the weepers could become a concern if there is more rain throughout the weekend.

For now, tomorrow is looking to be sunny, humid and in the low 90s, while there is a 40% chance of rain sometime Saturday. We'll keep you posted.

We bumped into a KVSH Racing team member with whom we discussed Sebastien Bourdais' #11 Hydroxycut Chevrolet being three pounds underweight in post-race inspection after Bourdais won Sunday's race in Milwaukee. Echoing AR1 President Mark Cipolloni's report from last evening this team member attributed the weight discrepancy to Bourdais burning off rubber celebrating the victory with donuts. The team member noted that they usually account for some buffer when preparing the car, but that up to five pounds can be lost in burning rubber.

We will continue to look into this as the weekend goes on.

Well, Indy Lights has taken to the track just now, so we imagine the issue with the weepers has been resolved.

Brian C. reporting from Iowa Speedway