ESPN IndyCar

This weekend's Iowa Corn Indy 250 could potentially be summed up as a big traffic jam on a small track.

Barring an incident in practice or qualifying, 27 cars will line up Sunday afternoon (1:00 p.m. ET, ABC) on the second-shortest track on the IndyCar Series schedule. Measuring just under 0.9 mile, Iowa Speedway is undercut only by Richmond International Raceway in terms of length and lap time.

Last year, the inaugural IndyCar race at Iowa Speedway turned into a wreckfest -- and that was with only 19 entries. The track looked like a bullring, but the drivers were able to run flat-out. In other words, it raced like a superspeedway and a number of factors combined to make passing nearly impossible. When desperation ensued -- especially on restarts -- tempers flared and cars came together.

There were 13 lead changes among eight drivers, but it was anything but a classic race. Ten of the 19 drivers were involved in some form of contact, including a six-car melee during a midrace restart. And big-name drivers got drawn into the mischief throughout the day, including Helio Castroneves, Sam Hornish Jr., Dan Wheldon, Tony Kanaan and Danica Patrick.

Only 10 of the 19 entries were running at the finish. Vitor Meira led 71 laps for Panther Racing, broke down after 216 laps but was still classified ninth, one position ahead of pole winner Scott Dixon. The Target/Ganassi driver came back out to complete 173 laps to notch a 10th-place finish after losing almost an hour with a steering problem.

Dario Franchitti and Marco Andretti ultimately completed a 1-2 finish for Andretti Green Racing, which wasn't that big of a surprise. But the heavy attrition made for an unusual order after that: Scott Sharp placed third for Rahal Letterman Racing, followed by Buddy Rice (Dreyer & Reinbold Racing), Darren Manning (A.J. Foyt Racing) and Ed Carpenter (Vision Racing).

Unseasonably cool temperatures led to some of last year's incidents, including Castroneves' spin while exiting the pits. Although weather typical of June with highs in the mid-80s is expected this weekend, Firestone is nonetheless bringing a slightly softer tire to Iowa this year.

However, following an exploratory test in May, changes to the aerodynamic package are not forthcoming and the cars will run standard short-track wing settings.

"Fortunately or unfortunately, nothing is changing," said IndyCar Series vice president of competition Tony Cotman. "We could remove 1,500 pounds of downforce to make it just flat in qualifying. But another 100 pounds either way had the potential to make the cars diabolical and could really screw things up.

"We think with 27 cars out there this year, you'll have to race and do some passing. We hope the slower guys stay low, though I don't think there will be such a massive speed discrepancy because the new guys are catching up."

Sharp's third-place finish at Iowa in 2007 for Rahal Letterman was one of only three occasions in 2007 when a driver for a team other than Ganassi, Penske or Andretti Green finished in the top three (Sharp notched another third at Michigan International Speedway and A.J. Foyt IV took third for Vision at Kentucky Speedway). That should give hope to the expanded field in this year's race, which has swelled thanks to the influx of "transition" teams from the defunct Champ Car World Series.

At the Milwaukee Mile earlier this month, the ex-Champ Car contingent demonstrated it will be much more competitive on short ovals than it has been to date on superspeedways. With races at Milwaukee, Iowa and Richmond International Raceway all occurring within the span of 28 days, the former Champ Car teams will be looking to capitalize during this portion of the schedule.

"I think where these other guys have got us is all of the work they've done on wind tunnel and wheel bearings, coatings for the gear box and all of those little things that add up to the 1.5 or 2 mph they have over us on the faster ovals," observed KV Racing's Will Power, one of the transition drivers. "But when you're running maximum downforce, that doesn't count.

"It's more about the car balance, and that's the reason that we can run up front," added the Australian. "Shorter ovals help me a little bit, too, because I raced in Milwaukee once in 2006. I really enjoy running around short ovals, because when you have got full downforce, it's a lot like a road course and you go take a proper racing line. It's all about just holding it flat and just running the car as free as possible."

Dixon could look at Iowa as the race that cost him the 2007 IndyCar Series championship. After the Ganassi team struggled on short ovals throughout 2006 as it adapted to the Dallara chassis, Dixon's pole represented a breakthrough for the team. But his car suffered an unusual steering failure and teammate Wheldon spun on the run to the green flag, taking out Tomas Scheckter.

"It just seized up, and I couldn't turn anywhere past halfway," Dixon recalled. "I had to bring the car in to the pits, or I would have ended up in the wall. It's very disappointing to have an issue like that ruin your race."

Team Penske's Castroneves also made an unforced error last year, but based on their form at Milwaukee three weeks ago, he and Ryan Briscoe should be competitive at Iowa. The same goes for Andretti Green Racing; Patrick and Andretti enjoy short ovals, while Kanaan should be on the pace as usual. Patrick and Hideki Mutoh tested for AGR at Richmond earlier this week, which could give the team a small boost at Iowa.

Despite the severe flooding that has affected much of the state of Iowa, speedway officials declared the IndyCar Series event will go on this weekend as planned. They hope to exceed last year's inaugural crowd of about 36,000 and will erect additional bleachers if there are enough additional general admission sales.

Several Iowa-based businesses have formed Race 2 Recovery to raise money for flood-ravaged communities and households, and teams and officials from the IndyCar and Firestone Indy Lights series will donate $60,000 to the Iowa chapter of the American Red Cross.

John Oreovicz covers open-wheel racing for National Speed Sport News and ESPN.com.