Iowa is to INDYCAR to what Chicago is to NASCAR. While you couldn’t have two polar opposite locations, you have the similar gain – a carnival type atmosphere to where the off track action is as hyped up as the on track activity.

Kenny Chesney and Carrie Underwood headline Saturday’s concerts. Zac Brown Band and Ed Sheeran are on Sunday. Those four pack as much punch as the 28 daredevils racing a pair of 250 lappers as what some may consider the halftime show between.

Still, this weekend for those in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES is a big one. It’s two races that from the drop of the green flag for Saturday’s Hy-Vee Homefront 250 (3 p.m. ET, NBC, INDYCAR Radio Network) to the checkered flag for Sunday’s Hy-Vee One Step 250 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, INDYCAR Radio Network), will award more points in two races than the single-race Indianapolis 500 did in May.

Leaving here, there’s just five races remaining in the 2023 season. Which is why points are of the premium.

Does that add more pressure to the Chevrolet camp to deliver on a track that they’ve been so dominant at?

“I feel all of these other teams will have closed the gap a bit because it is a doubleheader race,” Will Power said on Wednesday afternoon in the weekly INDYCAR media call. “If you’re going into off-season after last year, you would focus pretty hard on that because of the points available. Maybe Ganassi is a bit better, and we know McLaren is good there.

“I don’t think Andretti tested there. Oh, yes, they did. They did. Yeah, it could be pretty — it will be a pretty fierce race.”

Where Honda has the road and street course reign, Chevy has short ovals. It’s also why Honda was well represented in June’s test here and Chevrolet really wasn’t.

From a Chevy’s standpoint, there’s no point of testing at a track that you’ve dominated at lately. Why not go somewhere else to learn a deficit instead?

That’s exactly what they did in going to Road America last month instead.

“We would use that test day on a track that we really would struggle at,” admitted Power. “Unfortunately, we used one of our tests at Road America, and the tire was different, and it really didn’t work out, which happens sometimes.

“We have very good cars there, so we’re hoping that we turn up and have to make minor adjustments, slight tire changes, track degradation.

“Those guys, for sure, I would expect, have improved, which makes it — yes, it will be a tougher race. I think track position is pretty big there because it’s kind of like Texas. If you’re at the back, you’re sitting in very dirty air and tires deg a lot sooner. And guys up front, they don’t, so when they get to the back of the train, they can murder through traffic.

“Yeah, you know how INDYCAR is. What makes it difficult to win? Josef is one of the reasons. He’s just been very good there. He’s just very good at putting it together. That certainly was the closest I’d ever been to him last year. We’ll see if I can improve more this year.”

Last year, Chevy swept the podium on both days in taking 4 of the 5 spots on the lead lap on Saturday’s race last year and a 1-2-3 sweep a day later.

Josef Newgarden and Will Power combined to lead 221 of the 250 laps (88%) on Saturday and Newgarden, Power and Pato O’Ward led 293 of 300 laps on Sunday giving the bowties their 7th win in the last 8 Iowa tries including 5 straight. At World Wide Technology Raceway, they’ve won 5 of the 7 races since the return including 3 straight.

“I think Chevy’s done a great job this year giving us drivability and horsepower,” said Power. “It definitely showed this weekend, all the Chevy cars were really strong.

“Yeah, just lucky to be involved with these guys. They’re very, very good at their job.”

Plus, how much better can Newgarden, O’Ward and Power get here? Power, who’s winless at Iowa, notes that the only reason he’s been shutout is due to Newgarden’s success.

Newgarden has led 111 or more laps in 7 of his last 9 Iowa starts including four wins, a pair of runner-ups, a fourth, fifth and sixth place result in the last 10 tries. He’s won 3 of the last 5 here as well as having scored 5 wins in the last 7 short oval races in general.

You also have O’Ward to deal with too.

O’Ward has been great in Gateway (3rd, 2nd, 2nd, 4th) and even better here: 4th, 12th, 2nd, 1st. In his last 14 oval starts in general, he’s finished 6th, 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, 1st, 4th, 2nd, 15th, 2nd, 2nd, 1st, 4th, 2nd and 24th respectively.

Oddly enough, 3 of his 4 career wins have come on the backend of a doubleheader weekend too.

“We’ve obviously dominated this weekend,” O’Ward said of Chevy’s power. “It’s been an all-Chevy podium both days. Qualifying was also all Chevy. The power was there. The drivability was there. The reliability was there. Just very crucial part of the season to have that. Yeah, great to have them power us.”

The duo has combined to have won 7 of the last 8 oval races in general with Newgarden winning 6 of the last 8 all by himself. He’s 2-for-2 this season.

On short ovals in general, Newgarden and O’Ward have won five in-a-row dating back to Race 2 at World Wide Technology Raceway in 2020. They’ve also gone 1-2 in 5 of the last 12 oval races too.

Oddly enough, 3 of O’Ward’s 4 career trips to victory lane came on the 2nd day of a doubleheader weekend which makes him a strong favorite for Sunday.

Will anyone beat them this weekend or do they run away with this? How much does not showing up to June’s test cost them performance?

For the Honda teams at Iowa, Power feels like that test was a massive advantage for them and says that they could seriously close the gap to Chevy here this weekend as a result.

Honda has won 9 of the 10 poles this season including eight straight. They’ve also won 7 of the 10 races too. However, they have one Iowa victory since 2016. That came back in 2018.

Power says that one of their advantages is that this is a short weekend with one practice and for those teams that tested here, they can jump straight into a qualifying run since they already have a ton of data to work off of. With track position being so important at Iowa, you better start up front and with tires being limited being a doubleheader weekend, you only have so much you can do on Friday.

“Yes, you’ve got to try to balance qualifying versus getting race work done in that one practice we have,” he said. “Pretty important to roll off the truck in a good spot, which I can’t see why we wouldn’t.

“That’s the advantage of testing. You’re going to turn up and just go straight out of the box and do a quality run on a new set, whereas we’re going to waste a set of tires just getting up to speed. And you need your tires because you’re limited because you’ve got two races.

“Yeah, that’s — yeah, that’s the disadvantage of not testing, but I expect the car to be good out of the box.”

Andretti and Ganassi were among the teams that did test. They each brought four cars to the June test. Meyer Shank Racing brought both cars and RLL brought all three. That’s 13 of the 20 cars right there.

Andretti went 1st (Colton Herta), 11th (Kyle Kirkwood), 12th (Devlin DeFrancesco) and 18th Romain Grosjean). Their satellite team, Meyer Shank Racing, went 3rd (Simon Pagenaud) and 10th (Helio Castroneves).

Herta enters on the heels of his first podium finish of the season last week in Toronto when he finished third.

Ganassi was 4th (Alex Palou), 5th (Scott Dixon), 8th (Takuma Sato) and 9th (Marcus Ericsson).

“Honestly, the test was good,” Palou said. “You always want to be leading at tests, especially if big competitors are not there. They’re amazing. We know they’re going to be up there, Penskes and McLarens.”

Dixon may be 0-for-17 at Iowa, but has been solid here as of last with five straight top five finishes too. He also has 3 top 8’s in his last four at Gateway as well. Also, Dixon has finished 7th, 6th, 6th, 4th, 4th, 2nd and 4th respectively over his last seven starts on the season. In fact, his three finishes prior were 3rd, 5th and 27th.

Palou has finished 11th, 14th, 6th and 13th at Iowa and 15th, 12th, 20th and ninth in Gateway. He has a top 8 finish in each of the 10 races run and if you go back to last season, his last 11 finishes are 1st, 8th, 3rd, 5th, 5th, 1st, 4th, 1st, 1st, 1st and 2nd.

He also admits that Iowa and tracks like it, well they’re not strong suits for him. However, having the points lead where it is and having a full days worth of work before showing up this weekend certainly helps his mindset and about how he can attack the .894-mile track this weekend.

“Yeah, I mean, last year was one of the worst weekends for me personally, but not for the team though. I remember it was quite exciting for the team,” he admits.

“We worked a lot on our tire deg, long runs. It’s always good if you can start P1. If you have tire deg like we had, like I had especially on my car last year, you go from third to ninth in one stint, which is what happened.

“I learned a lot on how to drive it better, how to get more confident. I think we made the right step. You always want more. It was good, it was positive. We learned some stuff. Hopefully that gives us some indications on how to make another step before the race.

“But yeah, I struggled quite a lot there. Even in 2020, my first year in INDYCAR, then last year quite a lot. Being a doubleheader it’s obviously worse because it’s double points, let’s say, on the same weekend.”

RLL went 6th (Christian Lundgaard), 7th (Jack Harvey) and 15th (Graham Rahal). They enter rejuvenated with Lundgaard taking the pole as well as the race win in Toronto. Rahal came from last to finish ninth. They’re riding a high wave right now that could see them play a role in things on both days.

The only Chevy teams in Iowa back in June were ECR (2-13-14), Juncos (17th Canapino, Ilott not there) and Foyt (19-20).

Which makes me wonder if the Honda teams figured out their deficit and did it cost Chevy with Penske and McLaren not represented too.

Ganassi won 2 of the first 3 Iowa races run. They’re 0-for-14 since.

Andretti won 7 of the first 9 overall. They’re 0-for-8 since.

So, they know how to get it done at Iowa, it’s just the pendulum has swung against them. Now, does this test swing it back in their favor?

We’ve seen a lot over the recent years, that with testing so limited and race weekend’s being more condensed, when you do test, it’s a massive advantage. We’ll see if it proves to be the case this weekend in Iowa.