Statement podium for de Alba at Iowa Speedway

The INDY NXT by Firestone series visited Iowa Speedway this past weekend for the first oval round of the 2024 season. Andretti Cape INDY NXT was present with Salvador de Alba driving the team’s lone entry for the event.

de Alba completed his two qualifying laps on Friday afternoon, earning the 10th starting position. INDYCAR announced later that the race distance would be shortened from 75 laps to 55 on account of tire wear concerns, effectively turning the race into a sprint event.

Once the green flags waved on Saturday afternoon, de Alba immediately began making his way towards the front. In the first corner he drove on the outside of Reece Gold and Jacob Abel, taking the racing three wide and gaining two positions in the process.

The rookie continued making moves on the second racing lap, completing another pass on the outside then diving to the inside lane in Turn 3 to move even further up the order. By time the third lap was complete, de Alba was already in fifth.

After a lengthy caution period to clean up the debris from Caio Collet and Myles Rowe’s incident, de Alba was on the attack again. He battled with fellow Andretti driver Jamie Chadwick and few others, providing heaps of excitement for the fans in attendance at the 7/8-mile oval.

With five laps to go, de Alba put his previous oval experience on display. He used lapped traffic ahead to expertly make up three positions in a row and move into podium position. The 24-year-old held position through the end of the race, finishing third and completing an Andretti sweep of the podium.

de Alba’s result gave him his first podium in INDY NXT, and his sixth top 10 finish of the season. It was also the first podium of the season for Andretti Cape, with a fourth place result at the season opening race in St. Petersburg have been the team’s best up to this point. de Alba handily won the Josten’s Biggest Mover award in Iowa by gaining seven positions over the course of the race.

With three of the final four races of the season taking place on ovals, the team is hoping to continue the upward trajectory through the remainder of the year. The next race takes place August 17 on the 1.25-mile World Wide Technology Raceway.

Salvador de Alba

“Definitely the ovals are suited to me. It showed today. Yesterday qualifying wasn't great. We knew the car was probably going to be better in the race. We tried and stuck going around the outside probably half of the race. For me the car was always in the window. Just trying to manage front tires, especially with the shortened race and what we knew probably was going to happen.

“It was a very good race. Very proud of the team, of Cape guys and Andretti. Congratulations to the whole team.”