Two Races, Two Types Of Pavement: What To Know About INDYCAR's Iowa Doubleheader

Two types of pavement. That’s different.

Two races, two days. That’s different.

Santino Ferrucci during the warm up session prior to the start of the NTT INDYCAR Series Hy-Vee One Step 250 on July 23, 2023 at Iowa Speedway

To say the Iowa Speedway race weekend is unique for the INDYCAR circuit this year would be an accurate statement. It’s not much different from a year ago, but it is different when looking at it with respect to the other 2025 race weekends.

Here’s info to get you in tune with what will happen this weekend.

Two races in two days?

Yup. The drivers will compete in 275-lap races, the first at 5 p.m. ET Saturday and then a quick turnaround for 1 p.m. ET Sunday. Both races will air on FOX.

How do they set the lineup?

During qualifying on Saturday, each driver will do two consecutive laps. The first lap will be their qualifying speed to set the lineup for the first race. The second lap will be their qualifying speed to set the lineup for the second race.

Why two races?

It goes back to 2011 and racing at Texas Motor Speedway, which wanted to do something different from its 342-mile race. So it started doing a pair of 171-mile races on the 1.5-mile track. Conducting two races in one weekend is not unique in other forms of racing, especially ones where they want to limit travel costs or can’t land deals with racing venues.

As the series schedule evolved, Texas eventually went back to one race there but continued doubleheader weekends elsewhere to help fill out the schedule, especially now on ovals.

Pato O'Ward stops in his pit for tires and fuel during the NTT INDYCAR Series PPG 375 on April 2, 2023 at Texas Motor Speedway 

While there were doubleheader weekends at both Iowa and Milwaukee last year, an