The 2016 Iowa Corn 300 was the 10th Round of the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season and the 10th consecutive year the

Verizon IndyCar Series The IndyCar Series, officially known as the NTT IndyCar Series for sponsorship reasons, is the highest class of American open-wheel car racing in the United States, which has been conducted under the auspices of various sanctioning bodies sin ...

visited the

Newton, Iowa Newton is the county seat of, and most populous city in, Jasper County, Iowa, United States. Located east of Des Moines, Iowa, Des Moines, Newton is in Central Iowa. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 Census, the city population was 15,760 ...

short oval. The race was broadcast on

NBCSN NBCSN (also known as NBC Sports Network) was an American sports television television channel, channel owned by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It originally launched on July 1, 1995, as the Outdoor Lif ...

with

Brian Till Brian Till (born March 26, 1960, in Houston, Texas), is a racecar driver who formerly competed in the CART Championship Car series. He raced in the 1992–1995 seasons with 20 career starts. Racing career Till had success early being named Rook ...

as the Lap-By-Lap Announcer.

Ryan Hunter-Reay Ryan Christopher Hunter-Reay (born December 17, 1980) is an American professional racing driver best known as a winner of both the Indianapolis 500 (2014) and the IndyCar Series championship in 2012. He currently competes part-time in the IndyC ...

Andretti Autosport Andretti Global is an American motorsports organization with teams competing in the IndyCar Series, Indy NXT, Formula E, and joint entries in IMSA and the Australian Supercars Championship. Starting in 2026, Andretti will also operate the Cad ...

entered as the defending winner of the race.

Race Summary

The race was moved to a Sunday afternoon due to the Saturday Night slot on NBCSN taken up by the

Quaker State 400 The Quaker State 400 available at Walmart is a NASCAR Cup Series stock car race that was run annually each March at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia from 1960 to 2010 and as a July race since 2021. The race is one of two races c ...

of the

2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series file:Chase Elliott 2016 NASCAR Media Touir.jpg, Chase Elliott, the 2016 NASCAR Rookie of the Year The 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series was the 68th season of professional stock car racing in the United States and the 45th modern-era Cup seri ...

. Qualifying saw

Simon Pagenaud Simon Pierre Michel Pagenaud (; born 18 May 1984) is a French professional racing driver, who last drove the No. 60 Honda for Meyer Shank Racing in the NTT IndyCar Series. After a successful career in sports car racing that saw him taking the ...

take his fifth pole of the season while also giving

Team Penske Team Penske (formerly Penske Racing) is an American professional auto racing organization, competing in the IndyCar Series, NASCAR Cup Series, IMSA SportsCar Championship and FIA World Endurance Championship. Debuting at the 1966 24 Hours of Day ...

its 500th pole position across all series. Ryan Hunter-Reay started 20th, and would have to climb through the field to repeat his victory. The race started on schedule with

Josef Newgarden Josef Nicolai Newgarden (born December 22, 1990) is an American racing driver who races the No. 2 Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet in the IndyCar Series. He was the 2011 Indy Lights champion, and 2017 and 2019 IndyCar Series Champion. He won the 2 ...

taking the lead from Pagenaud and leading the first 50 laps. As pit stops began to cycle through, the lead would shuffle to Pagenaud, then to

Max Chilton Maximilian Alexander Chilton (born 21 April 1991) is a British former racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to . Born and raised in Redhill, Surrey, Chilton is the younger brother of racing driver Tom Chilton. He competed in the GP ...

, and then

Alexander Rossi Alexander Michael Rossi (born September 25, 1991) is an American racing driver, who competes in the IndyCar Series for Ed Carpenter Racing, Ed Carpenter. Rossi competed in Formula One at five Formula One Grands Prix, Grands Prix in . In America ...

, before Newgarden returned to the lead. The race saw its first yellow flag when defending winner Ryan Hunter-Reay suffered an engine failure on lap 108 and came to a halt on track. The caution flag ended Newgarden's chance to lap the field, as many previously lapped cars were waved around to the tail end of the lead lap. The race restarted on lap 128, where Newgarden once again began to pull away from the field. Caution flew once more on lap 179, when

Juan Pablo Montoya Juan Pablo Montoya Roldán (; born 20 September 1975) is a Colombian racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to , IndyCar between 1999 and 2022, and the NASCAR Cup Series between 2006 and 2024. Montoya won seven Formula One Grand ...

suffered an engine failure and, like Hunter-Reay, came to a stop on course. The race returned to green flag racing on lap 188. The third and final caution came for a spin by Max Chilton in turn 2 on lap 246, which bunched the field up for a 40 lap sprint to the end. Newgarden, however, was still untouchable and cruised away to win by over four seconds over

Will Power William Steven Power (born 1 March 1981) is an Australian racing driver who competes in the IndyCar Series, driving the No. 12 Dallara-Chevrolet for Team Penske. He won the 2018 Indianapolis 500 and has won the IndyCar Championship twice, in ...

, despite suffering a broken wrist the previous weekend at

Texas Motor Speedway Texas Motor Speedway (formerly known as Texas International Raceway from September to December 1996) is a quad-oval Oval track racing#Intermediate, intermediate speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. It has hosted various major races since its inaugura ...

. Only five cars remained on the lead lap by the time the checkered flag fell. Newgarden's 282 laps led set a record for most laps led in a

race. His victory also moved him up to second place in the championship, making him a serious contender to take victory.

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ) is an American automobile division of the manufacturer General Motors (GM). In North America, Chevrolet produces and sells a wide range of vehicles, from subcompact automobiles to medium-duty commercial trucks. Due to the promi ...

was dominant again, as they had been for much of the season, with the top four positions all going to Chevrolet powered cars.

Mikhail Aleshin Mikhail Petrovich Aleshin ( rus, Михаи́л Петро́вич Алёшин, p=mʲɪxɐˈil pʲɪˈtrovʲɪtɕ ɐˈlʲɵʂɨn, born 22 May 1987) is a Russian professional racing driver and the 2010 champion of the Formula Renault 3.5 Series ...

's fifth place finish made him the highest placed

Honda commonly known as just Honda, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate automotive manufacturer headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in October 1946 by Soichiro Honda, Honda has bee ...

driver.

was the highest placed rookie in the field, coming in sixth. It was his best finish since his

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly shortened to Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indian ...

victory. Only three drivers retired during the race;

Conor Daly Conor James Daly (born December 15, 1991) is an American professional auto racing, racing driver. He competes in the IndyCar Series driving the No. 76 Chevrolet for Juncos Hollinger Racing. He also competes occasionally in NASCAR and has also rac ...

, and

, all with engine related issues.

Results

Qualifying

Source

Race Results

;Notes: Points include 1 point for leading at least 1 lap during a race, an additional 2 points for leading the most race laps, and 1 point for Pole Position. Source for time gaps:

Championship standings after the race

;Drivers' Championship standings * Note: Only the top five positions are included.

References

External links

Official Pit Stop Data

Official Race Broadcast
{{IndyCar Series race report , Name_of_race = Iowa Corn 300 , Year_of_race = 2016 , Previous_race_in_season =

2016 Kohler Grand Prix The 2016 Kohler Grand Prix was the 9th round of the 2016 IndyCar Series. The event took place over 50 laps around Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. The race was the first for IndyCars at the circuit since 2007 during the final season of ...

, Next_race_in_season = 2016 Honda Indy Toronto , Previous_year's_race = 2015 Iowa Corn Indy 300 , Next_year's_race = 2017 Iowa Corn 300 Iowa Corn 300 2016 Iowa Corn 300 Iowa Corn 300 Iowa Corn Indy 300