Editor’s note: This story was updated after the conclusion of Sunday’s race at Iowa Speedway.
NEWTON, Iowa — Chase Elliott is in the midst of a career year at the NASCAR Cup Series level.
Perhaps that’s hyperbolic considering the 28-year-old won the championship in 2020 and collected 18 wins from 2018-2022 alone. But the driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet has been outstanding — nearly to the point of flying under the radar despite being the sport’s six-time defending Most Popular Driver.
One year after the first winless season since 2017, Elliott’s average finish through 17 races in 2024 is a staggering series-best 9.1, a career-best mark for the ninth-year veteran. His April win at Texas Motor Speedway snapped a 42-race drought, and the No. 9 car has yet to finish worse than 19th all season.
He leaves Sunday’s inaugural race at Iowa Speedway as the regular-season points leader, eight points atop Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson.
“I just think we have a really solid group top to bottom, and everybody has been just super committed to finding that 1% each week and whatever that is, it is,” Elliott said Saturday before his third-place finish. “I just think collectively, we’ve been solid. And I feel that we haven’t reached our full potential yet — and I think that’s exciting.
“And I think that’s OK too, because it’s only halfway through the year and, as we all know, the way this playoff situation is now, you want to be good in those last 10 — and really like the last five.”
The Georgia native collected five wins in 2022, the debut season of the current Next Gen vehicle, but an off-track injury and a later suspension derailed much of the rhythm Elliott and crew chief Alan Gustafson sought to build while others learned the car quicker and more effectively.
That gap has closed significantly, and Elliott is seemingly in the hunt every week, evidenced by his fourth-best 11.71 average running position this season entering the Hawkeye State, behind only Larson, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr.
Including his charge to the championship four seasons ago, Elliott strung together three consecutive appearances in the Championship 4 with a chance to win the title. He and his crew know the formula it will take to get back there in November.
“The trick is being good enough to get you to like the Round of 8, and in your mind, not be spectacular yet — and then really try to be spectacular in those last three or four weeks,” Elliott said. “So it’s really just about having a solid enough base to get you through there and then really try to hit home runs in those last few if you can.”
Sunday’s inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race at Iowa Speedway took a massive turn early in the final stage as Kyle Larson and Daniel Suárez tangled on the frontstretch, collecting Denny Hamlin in the process.
The No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet of Larson went three-wide in between Brad Keselowski’s No. 6 Ford and Suárez’s No. 99 Chevy just before contact off Turn 4. The 2021 series champion skidded into the outside wall and into the path of Hamlin’s approaching No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
Both Hamlin and Larson made multiple pit stops for repairs, and Larson’s No. 5 entry spent substantial time in the Cup Series garage after meeting the minimum speed requirement. Suárez continued for a ninth-place finish; Hamlin pressed on for a 24th-place result, two laps off the pace, and Larson was 36 laps down in 34th at the checkered flag.
Before the incident, Larson had led 80 laps after winning the pole for Sunday evening’s 350-lapper, and he won Stage 2.
“If I could see a replay, I would tell you what went wrong, if it was my fault or what,” Larson said on pit road post-race. “I mean, obviously if I don’t go three-wide there, there’s probably no crash but I’m probably running sixth into Turn 1 so, but either way sixth is better than crash. Yeah, I don’t know. Like I said, I think just, I should have been more aware of who I was around. Suárez is really aggressive, and I don’t know. He was probably just pushing and got loose, I’m guessing, underneath me.”
Suárez marked his first top-10 finish since mid-April at Texas Motor Speedway, a span of eight races ago. He noted that he initiated the contact, but also that he didn’t expect the action to tighten as much as it did exiting the track’s sweeping fourth corner.
“Honestly, during the race I was so confused, I didn’t know what happened,” Suárez told FOX Sports’ Bob Pockrass. “I didn’t know if I went up or he came down. I just saw the replay for the very first time, and I noticed that the 6 (Keselowski) was the one that was on the outside, he had like a quarter of a car from the wall because he was trying to pinch down the 5 (Larson), and then the 5 had another quarter of a car to the 6, trying to pinch me down, and I was expecting those two guys to be closer to the wall like everyone else. I mean, I’m definitely … I’m the one that made contact with the 5, and I take responsibility for that, but I felt like they were lower than I was expecting.”
Fortunes were not the same for Hamlin as he dealt with handling issues from the start of the race and quickly fell off the lead lap before rallying with pit strategy to collect five points at Stage 2 checkered flag. The melee in front of him curtailed the comeback from 34th place at the end of Stage 2.
NEWTON, Iowa — Joe Gibbs Racing will officially have a vacancy to fill for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season.
On Friday at Iowa Speedway, Martin Truex Jr. announced his decision to step away from full-time Cup racing. Waiting in the wings, however, are a slew of free agents as the annual game of musical chairs truly gets underway.
That includes each of the four Stewart-Haas Racing drivers — Josh Berry, Noah Gragson, Chase Briscoe and Ryan Preece — all of whom learned on May 28 SHR will close its operation upon season’s end.
With Truex on his way out, a ride available at one of the sport’s powerhouse organizations is immediately the most coveted in the garage.
“I think that was the first domino that fell to make sure obviously that ride’s open and start the trickle-down effect,” Berry said Saturday. “I think there’s still a lot of movement coming, but like I said, that’s the first move. I think it’s going to open up or start the process and get everything figured out a little sooner.”
According to reports from The Athletic and FOX Sports, Briscoe is mentioned toward the top of the list of candidates to step into the No. 19 car next year. The Indiana native told reporters Saturday he had “nothing to announce yet” for 2025 but talks were ongoing with multiple organizations.
“Definitely working on it,” Briscoe said. “Feel like I’m pretty close I think, so yeah. Nothing to announce yet, but definitely working on it. Feel pretty good about it.”
Briscoe, managing a career-best 16.5 average finish after 16 races this year, is in the midst of his seventh season with Stewart-Haas Racing, dating back to his inaugural part-time campaign with the team in the Xfinity Series in 2018. But the 29-year-old has never been in a position to choose from a list of suitors when firming up racing plans — not until this year, at least.
“In the past, it’s always been kind of just, ‘this is where you’re gonna go,’ and it’s never been my choice in my entire career of where I go,” Briscoe said. “So yeah, that’s been unique.”
With multiple teams courting his talents, Briscoe is navigating this phase of life through different lenses.
“It’s definitely been, honestly, a confidence builder I think for me, just the fact that multiple teams want me,” he said. “You know, when the whole thing went down two-and-a-half weeks ago, I was panicking that nobody was gonna want me. To be able to have multiple offers on the table has been exciting from a confidence standpoint.
“I definitely think it’s hard, though, because whatever happens in the future, I kind of determine my own destiny with that choice.”
Sean Gardner | Getty Images
That decision will also include the perspective of fatherhood. Already the father of 2-year-old son Brooks, Briscoe and wife Marissa are expecting twins as well, putting parental needs front of mind.
“There’s a lot of different options, right?” Briscoe said. “Like, performance is one thing that definitely, weighing the options, is something that is important, the future and what the future looks like. And then obviously, the other part is what’s going to be the best to provide for my family. You know, with twins on the way, I’m gonna have three kids. Like that is a real thought now is just what’s going to set us up for the future in the best way. And probably in the past, it would have not been as important to me, but now with a family and being a dad and there’s a lot of these variables that go into that.”
Another consideration will be how Briscoe believes he will mesh with the organization. A new team means being surrounded by new people for multiple days per week while handling a different weekly schedule.
“That’s been one of my first questions (to teams) is what do you think your culture is and where do you think I fit into that?” Briscoe said. “So, I mean, that’s a big thing. Just being at SHR for the last seven years, I feel like their culture really fits my personality and just how everybody is there and just the camaraderie everybody has and I don’t want to lose that. So just trying to figure out where I would fit in the best has been important to me.”
One of those current teams at SHR is the No. 10 of Noah Gragson, who joined SHR over the offseason in what was announced as a multiyear agreement. The team’s impending closure negates that, of course, setting Gragson down the path of free agency for the second consecutive season.
“I haven’t signed anything yet,” Gragson said, “so just trying to weigh out all the options accordingly and you know, have those conversations but still looking for an opportunity.”
The 25-year-old hopes and believes those opportunities to remain in the Cup Series exist but is also trying to let the circumstances play out as they will.
“Personally, I just keep telling myself just focus on what I can control,” Gragson said. “And that’s my attitude and my focus and my leadership of our race team and what I can do behind the wheel preparation-wise and just becoming the best driver and person I can be.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen. I believe I can be a part of this group on Sundays that races and I’m working my tail off to be a part of that group in the future.”
Brittney Wilbur | NASCAR Digital Media
Gragson, a native of Las Vegas, also acknowledged his “fair share of challenges and adversity over the years,” which reached a climax last summer when he was indefinitely suspended from NASCAR and ultimately parted ways with Legacy Motor Club for a member-conduct violation related to his activities on social media.
“Even before that situation happened last year, there was a lot of rumors and talks out there going on out of my control,” Gragson said.
One year later, Gragson is nursing an 18.7 average finish — 10 spots better than a season ago — and has collected one top five and five top 10s through 16 events in 2024.
“Now I know that I’m in a much different place and performing a lot better and have a team that supports me around me,” Gragson said. “And that’s what I need as a driver is a group that supports me that has trust in me and that’s what I got right now.”
Gragson posted the quickest lap in Friday’s practice for the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race at Iowa set for Sunday night (7 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN Radio, NBC Sports App, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Editor’s note: Full race projection was updated on Sunday morning after Friday’s practice and Saturday’s qualifying.
On Sunday, the Cup Series is set to debut at Iowa Speedway for the Iowa Corn 350 powered by Ethanol (7 p.m. ET, USA, MRN Radio, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio), with Kyle Larson projected to cruise through the field en route to his fourth victory this year.
Despite missing the Coca-Cola 600, Larson reclaimed the points lead after his Sonoma win last Sunday and is 14 points up on Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott.
It’s hard to find a track on the calendar that isn’t in Larson’s wheelhouse, but at Iowa Speedway, there wasn’t much data to prove it before this weekend when he captured the Busch Light Pole Award. Previously, Larson made four Xfinity starts at the 0.875-mile oval, netting two top-five finishes and two top 10s.
Larson was at the Goodyear tire test in May at Iowa, which is a slight feather in his cap heading into the weekend. At short tracks overall, Larson has finished sixth or better in nine of the last 10 contests, including two wins last year at Martinsville and Richmond. As a bonus, Larson is also the most recent Father’s Day winner (Nashville, 2021).
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, Elliott, 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick (up from eighth) and RFK Racing’s Brad Keselowski follow Larson in the projections. William Byron, Joey Logano, Christoper Bell (down from third), Ryan Blaney and Ross Chastain complete the projected top 10. Blaney and Chastain moved into the top 10 after practice and qualifying while Bubba Wallace and Martin Truex Jr. dropped out.
Sunday night’s race is set to be a thriller, with everyone in the Cup garage getting their first bite of Iowa Speedway in the Next Gen car.
OTHER DRIVERS TO WATCH
DENNY HAMLIN: Hamlin has been the short-track king this season. He won at Bristol and Richmond and has finished top three in five of the last six short-track races. While he’s one of the few drivers with no experience at Iowa Speedway, it wouldn’t be a shock to see him respond to Larson’s Sonoma win with one of his own.
BRAD KESELOWSKI: The 2012 champ has been on a heater this season. Keselowski has routinely looked like a threat to win, and when you look at his Xfinity stats at Iowa, he should be in the mix this weekend. Keselowski has three wins, six top fives and seven top-10 finishes in seven starts at the circuit. He was also at the Goodyear tire test after the track’s repave.
JOEY LOGANO: Did someone say new track? Enter Joey Logano. The two-time champ seems to excel on debut tracks, winning the inaugural races at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and World Wide Technology Raceway. Logano’s best performance this season came in a runner-up finish at Richmond.
KYLE BUSCH: Busch has two Xfinity starts at Iowa, marking a win and a runner-up finish. It’s also been 37 races since Busch’s last win — the longest streak of his career — meaning Rowdy is due to visit Victory Lane soon.
RICKY STENHOUSE JR.: Similar to Keselowski, Stenhouse also has three Xfinity wins on the Hawkeye State short track, and with two drivers outside the top 16 already owning wins (Daniel Suárez and Austin Cindric), Stenhouse could further shake up the playoff picture.
RACING INSIGHTS’ PROJECTIONS FOR IOWA CORN 350 POWERED BY ETHANOL
Racing Insights’ advanced statistical formula includes current track, current track type, recent performance, team data and pit-crew data to arrive at a projected winner and full race results.
NEWTON, Iowa — When Martin Truex Jr. announced his retirement from full-time racing in the NASCAR Cup Series in a Friday news conference at Iowa Speedway, he noted that he wasn’t disappearing and that he’d still remain involved in the sport. Truex wasn’t certain about what his ambassador role with Joe Gibbs Racing or a part-time driving schedule might entail, but longtime JGR teammate Denny Hamlin stepped in later that afternoon with a turn-key option.
“I told him that I will have his Daytona 500 car ready immediately,” said Hamlin, co-owner of Toyota affiliate team 23XI Racing. “Tell me the word. 100%. I would 100% do that. … Any time that Martin gets bored and wants to run Cup, we would have a seat for him for sure.”
Hamlin and fellow JGR teammates Christopher Bell and Ty Gibbs were in the back of the press room for Truex’s announcement Friday, offering their presence and support for the future Hall of Famer as he opens his next chapter in life. Hamlin’s shared tenure with Truex on the JGR roster is a six-year overlap, but their entire Cup Series careers have ridden on parallel lines, with both entering stock-car racing’s big leagues as rookies in 2006.
The pair are also winning races well into their 40s, and Hamlin says Truex’s chance to reach an ultimate goal by going out on top is a real one.
“You’ve heard guys that have retired say that they just knew when that moment was right, and I think that Martin, that he had that light bulb go off where he was going to be fine with stepping away,” Hamlin says. “And so, I don’t know what that feels like exactly yet, but certainly, it’s different for everyone. And so I think it’s awesome that the guy is going to step away from the sport and do what I said I hoped I could do, and that is win my final race, right? He’s still good enough to be one of the greats in our sport here at whatever age he is, and he’s got just as great a shot at going out as a champion as anyone does.”
Tributes flowed after Truex’s announcement at Iowa Speedway, where the Cup Series races for the first time Sunday, and more are sure to follow as the end of the season draws closer. Several drivers shared their memories of Truex’s unassuming, even reserved style, with Bell noting: “He has no ego. He has no ‘I’m better than you’ attitude.”
Those observations were also shared by Hamlin, who could not recall a time when Truex had raised his ire, but who also praised his teammate’s understated excellence.
“It’s hard to believe I’ve been teammates with Martin as long as I have, and I’ve never had a ‘what the [expletive], Martin!’ moment,” Hamlin said. “Never, I just never had. I’m sure that he’s said that to me, about me in his head because of the things that I’ve done as his teammate, but I’ve never had that moment. … He’s just … he’s so respectful. He reminds me of Jimmie Johnson. I think he’s so underrated as far as the natural ability to drive a car fast. I have to work tremendously hard — week in, week out — to run the speed that Martin Truex runs week in, week out. I have to work really hard to keep up with him, and so I just think he’s one of the most naturally gifted drivers that our series has seen in quite some time, but he’s just not flashy about it. That’s the only difference in him and others that have been great in the Cup Series in the past. So when I think about Martin, I just try to think of, have I ever had a moment where I’ve said, ‘Man, I can’t believe he did that.’ And the answer is no. He’s always just done the right thing 100% of the time, and that’s just something that’s hard to do.”
Hamlin noted the contrasts between the two, saying how much Truex savored his moments of downtime while keeping busy was more his style. “We couldn’t be more opposite,” Hamlin said, “but there’s no one that I envy probably more than him.”
Truex is the latest Cup Series champion to join a list of recent retirees, a changing of the guard that’s included contemporaries in Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards and Jeff Gordon. When Hamlin won Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors back in 2006, he bested a group that included Truex, Clint Bowyer, Reed Sorenson, David Stremme and JJ Yeley.
Next season, Hamlin will be the last of that rookie class still competing full-time in the Cup Series, and he will also become the circuit’s oldest driver. Both are currently 43 years old, but Truex is roughly 4 1/2 months older.
“Martin was just the barometer for success and speed when we were coming into the Cup Series,” Hamlin said. “And so, man, it certainly doesn’t feel like I’m the oldest, but I guess when you kind of put it all in perspective and seeing these guys peel off, I certainly feel it, but my mind doesn’t make me believe that I’m the oldest.”
NEWTON, Iowa — AJ Allmendinger was the first driver in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Iowa Speedway to experience a flat tire and crash into the SAFER barrier. He was not the last.
Allmendinger was joined by Justin Allgaier, Jesse Love, Austin Hill, Jeb Burton and John Hunter Nemechek in the Xfinity garage, and they all wound up against the wall at some point during Saturday’s Hy-Vee Perks 250.
The 0.875-mile oval hosted Xfinity competition for the 21st time, but first since 2019, receiving new asphalt in the spring that was laid upon the middle and bottom lanes in each set of corners. That new surface produced plenty of grip but brought with it a new challenge as teams tried to manage their Goodyear rubber.
Allmendinger, Burton, Love and Allgaier all incurred similar fates: flat right-front tires that sent their Chevrolets into the retaining wall. Allmendinger’s day in the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet ended after completing 32 laps, pounding the SAFER barrier after his tire let go at the exit of Turn 4.
“It just blew out,” Allmendinger said, who added he felt no indication a blowout was imminent. “I was a little bit tight, and actually when I ran the bottom, I was tighter. So I thought down there, I was hurting the tire more. But I didn’t expect to have a right-front issue. It wasn’t like I was overly tight either. Just a part of it.”
Zach Sturniolo | NASCAR Digital Media
Burton became fated for a similar incident in Turn 1 when his right front went down, sending the No. 27 Jordan Anderson Racing Chevrolet into the wall. Burton, a 2023 playoff contender, was able to continue and trudged to a 24th-place finish, three laps down.
Love was the next driver in trouble at Lap 150 when the tire on his No. 2 Richard Childress Chevrolet flattened exiting Turn 4, nearly in an identical spot to Allmendinger’s incident — as well as Allgaier’s some 52 laps later. Allgaier, winner at Darlington Raceway five races ago, wound up with his second DNF in the past four events.
Allgaier credited crew chief Jim Pohlman for cautioning that issues may lie ahead and put the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet in a spot to succeed. But trouble headed Allgaier’s way nonetheless.
“Jim Pohlman did a great job on radio and just said, ‘Hey, look, we’re gonna be on the longest run we’ll run all day. Somebody’s gonna blow a right front; just don’t let it be us,'” Allgaier said. “Unfortunately it was us. Not the homecoming we wanted to come back to Iowa Speedway.”
A 14-year veteran of the Xfinity Series, Allgaier was eager to return to the Midwestern short track, where he’s turned plenty of laps. But the Illinois native felt the series could have benefitted from a tire test of its own after the recent repave.
“I’m a little disappointed we didn’t do a tire test here for the Xfinity Series,” Allgaier said. “You know, we’ve tried to not do tire tests at some of these places … but I feel like today there’s enough cars in the garage area that we probably should have.
“Goodyear does everything they can week in and week out to try to bring us a tire that’s not gonna have issues, right? I mean, that’s what they’ve done since the beginning. And I think that we just didn’t give them all the tools this week unfortunately to do the best thing.”
Hill’s day-ender appeared unique to his No. 21 Richard Childress Racing team. The Bennett Transportation Chevrolet was running second at Lap 218 when his left-front tire let go on entry to Turn 1, sending the No. 21 car into the SAFER barrier and its driver to the infield care center, where he and all others ousted from contention were evaluated and released.
“The lap before, something felt weird in the left front and I keyed up (the radio) and I said I might have a tire issue,” Hill told NASCAR.com. “Went down to (Turns) 3 and 4, everything felt similar to 1 and 2, but I knew I was losing ground to the (No.) 20. And I drove off into 1 and I lifted a little early, and right when I lifted, it just sat on the splitter and it got on the left front and there’s just nothing you can do. I mean, you’re carrying so much speed at a place like Iowa where, you know, it’s a small seven-eighths-mile kind of short track but it kind of raced like a mile-and-a-half today. I mean, it was a lot of throttle time, everyone fighting for that top lane as as you would say. But yeah, I mean, I had a lot of fun today. It just it didn’t work out, unfortunately.”
Nemechek’s issue was also unique — but with had a more obvious cause. He and Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Sheldon Creed collided on a restart with 13 laps left in regulation. Exiting Turn 4, Nemechek was to Creed’s right-rear quarter panel. Creed’s No. 18 Toyota didn’t give Nemechek’s No. 20 much leeway, leading to contact with Nemechek’s left-front tire. Within eight laps, Nemechek was into the Turn 3 wall and sent to the care center.
With so many key contenders sidelined by flat tires — Allgaier, Hill, Love and Nemechek have all won at least once this season — Hill was cautious to speculate on issues but believed myriad factors played into the outcome.
“I don’t want to point fingers or put the blame on anybody,” Hill said. “Some guys can sit here and blame Goodyear for it and other people can sit here and blame the teams for trying to get aggressive with air pressure and all. It’s probably a combination of just everything. Everyone’s trying extremely hard to get an edge on the competition, and sometimes you just push it too far.
“Now, did we do that? Did RCR do that? I don’t know that answer. But it seemed like everyone was really definitely pushing the limit on stuff. But who’s to say that that was the issue? I’m just not real sure.”
NEWTON, Iowa — In a race of tire management and hurt feelings, Sam Mayer held off Riley Herbst in overtime to win Saturday’s Hy-Vee Perks 250 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ return to Iowa Speedway after a four-year hiatus.
Mayer’s No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet crossed the finish line 0.146 seconds ahead of the No. 98 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford of Herbst, who felt Mayer had abused him earlier in the race.
The victory was Mayer’s second of the season and the sixth of his career, all coming within the last 29 races in the series.
“We struggled (Friday in practice), and the team went to work,” said Mayer, who started fifth when qualifying was canceled because of rain earlier on Saturday. “Obviously, we did pretty good overnight, making different changes on this race car.
“I feel really good. I could do another 100 laps — with a race car like this, it would be a lot of fun.”
Mayer held the lead when John Hunter Nemechek slammed the outside wall in Turn 4 with his left front tire down, the result of close-quarters racing with Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Sheldon Creed.
That accident on Lap 245 caused the ninth caution of the afternoon and sent the race three laps beyond its scheduled distance.
In the overtime, Mayer and Herbst took the green flag side-by-side and remained in that posture into Turn 1, but Mayer cleared the race runner-up off Turn 2 and held the top spot the rest of the way.
“I like racing Sam, but Stage 1 or 2, he just absolutely brooms me,” Herbst said. “We were racing clean for fourth, and he takes us back to 10th and then doors me down the back straightaway before the green-white-checker.
“It’s just frustrating the way he wants to do that, but all in all, it was fun. I’m happy to be back on ovals. The speed is back in the 98.”
Corey Heim finished a career-best third after starting 22nd because of the qualifying rainout. Sammy Smith was fourth, followed by Creed, who survived the dust-up with Nemechek after a restart on Lap 238.
Cole Custer, Matt DiBenedetto, Chandler Smith, Ross Chastain and Daniel Dye completed the top 10.
If any driver had cause for frustration, it was Chandler Smith, who led a race-high 131 laps and swept the first two stages. Smith restarted third to begin the final stage, but lack of short-run speed quickly dropped him to 12th, and he never recovered.
Austin Hill likewise had reason to bemoan his result. Overcoming early handling issues, Hill charged into the top five in the final stage, but a cut left front tire sent him hard into the Turn 1 wall on Lap 218, causing the seventh caution.
Hill finished 29th and dropped to third in the series standings, 41 points behind Custer, the current leader and defending series champion. Chandler Smith, second in the standings, trails Custer by one point.
After scoring two consecutive wins on road courses at Portland and Sonoma, Shane van Gisbergen’s good fortunes came to an end. The driver of the No. 97 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet got loose in Turn 2 early in the race and suffered race-ending damage, due to contact with Blaine Perkins and Kyle Weatherman.
Van Gisbergen finished 34th.
The Xfinity Series returns to action next Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET, USA, NBC Sports App, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Note: Post-race technical inspection was completed without issue, confirming Mayer as the race winner.
See where your favorite NASCAR Cup Series driver will pit for the Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol at Iowa Speedway on Sunday (7 p.m. ET, USA, NBC Sports App, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Rain curtailed Busch Light Pole Qualifying to a single round of time trials, and that was all that points leader Kyle Larson needed to notch his fourth pole of the season and the 20th of his Cup Series career. Larson hustled the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to a best lap of 136.458 mph. Defending Cup Series champ Ryan Blaney will share the front row for Sunday’s 350-lapper after putting the No. 12 Team Penske Ford second on the qualifications chart. | Qualifying recap
Noah Gragson set the fastest lap in an eventful 50-minute session with multiple incidents Friday afternoon, putting his No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford atop the speed charts at 137.988 mph. Ty Gibbs was second-fastest in practice (136.559 mph), but his No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was among those involved in the handful of tangles, joining JGR teammate Christopher Bell, Team Penske’s Austin Cindric and Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain among the trouble-impacted. The session set an early tone for how the tires might perform on the freshly, partially repaved 0.875-mile oval and influence Sunday’s race. | Practice recap
Big story line
Another Midwest move in Iowa’s debut, and the postseason focus sharpens
When NASCAR announced its purchase of Iowa Speedway in November 2013, the news release flatly stated: “NASCAR has no plans for Iowa Speedway to host a NASCAR (Sprint) Cup Series race next year or in the immediate future.” So it wasn’t immediate, but that ‘future’ moment for the Hawkeye State facility has finally arrived, and it’s a welcome debut for the Midwesterners in the field.
“It’s a national sport and it’s important, in my mind, to really live that out and I think we’re doing that by racing here in Iowa,” said Michigan native Brad Keselowski, a three-time Iowa winner in Xfinity Series competition. “It’s pretty much the exact middle of the country. If I was throwing a dart at a dart board, probably as close as you could get to the center would be Iowa and I think that’s important. There’s a lot of great race fans here that, I think, for a long time have been somewhat under-represented with the tracks that they’re around or that they get to go to. We started to work our way out there a little bit with Kansas and some of those tracks, which is great. I think that was a good win for us, and it’s nice to see us continue to do that with a race here in Iowa.”
Visiting a new track presents its own challenges, and Iowa’s 7/8-mile layout represents an in-betweener for other ovals on the schedule — 0.75-mile Richmond Raceway and 1-mile Phoenix Raceway, in particular. That newness is amplified by a partial repave, including a patch of fresh asphalt that stops just before the restart zone but is longer in the high groove, which could affect lane choice and drivers’ tactics before the green flag.
That new pavement also came into focus with some tire issues in Friday’s practice. Christopher Bell, one of three drivers who participated in a Goodyear tire test May 28, was one of the victims with a hard hit in his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Bell noted a strange contrast between last month’s test, where teams clicked off 50-lap runs with relative ease; Bell made just 19 laps before his issue in Friday’s practice.
The race’s spot on the calendar comes at a pivotal time, kicking off the final 10-race run to the Cup Series Playoffs. A pair of two-time Cup Series champions — Kyle Busch and Joey Logano — sit perilously just outside the provisional cut-off line for the 16-driver grid, and Bubba Wallace holds the final spot by a slim eight points. Logano, in particular, has shown a recent knack for winning at new or repaved venues, and Iowa checks both those boxes.
Nine drivers have won races this season, so the door remains open for another first-time winner to claim a postseason spot. Martin Truex Jr. and Chris Buescher both missed out on substantial chances to break through last weekend at Sonoma Raceway, where Kyle Larson held serve with his third win of the 2024 campaign. Both drivers have some cushion in the points standings, but the last 10 races before the postseason field is set will be crucial for all of those not already locked in.
Actually, history may not tell us much. Several current Cup Series drivers have a history of experience and success in other NASCAR and ARCA tours at Iowa, but with the Cup Series being on a different vector, there may not be much carry-over.
“Probably not, unfortunately,” Ricky Stenhouse Jr. said with a laugh when asked about his three Xfinity wins here. “But any time you come to a place that you have good memories, I feel like it’s always beneficial. Luckily I’ve got some good memories, because I’ve got some really bad memories from here too, as well, from early on in my career. I got to do a simulator session this week. A lot of the characteristics, at least on the scan that we ran, there were a few things that were similar. But yeah, the repave is definitely going to be tricky and different.”
Stenhouse and Keselowski are multi-time winners here in NASCAR’s national series with three Xfinity wins each. That list also includes Erik Jones (one Iowa win in Xfinity, two in Trucks), Christopher Bell (two Xfinity wins), William Byron (one each in Xfinity and Trucks), and Ryan Blaney (one Xfinity, one in Trucks).
As far as short-track performance in the Cup Series’ Next Gen era, Denny Hamlin has risen to the forefront with four wins in the last 13 short-track events. That span includes three wins and five top-three finishes in the last six short-track races.
He may not be the betting favorite to win, but watch out for…
ALEX BOWMAN. Setting off at 45-to-1 odds, the driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet slots in as a mid-major on the Vegas sportsbooks’ lists, but he was third on the Cup Series practice boards — both in single-lap and 10-lap average categories. His last two finishes — 28th at Gateway, 15th at Sonoma — have cooled off his recent run of five straight top-10 finishes, but Bowman drew mention from fellow competitor Chase Briscoe when a local reporter asked him about the drivers to beat on Sunday. “Alex Bowman, I thought was super fast in the long run yesterday,” Briscoe said. “He kind of was in a league of his own, so he’d be another.” That bullish statement was made before Bowman qualified a disappointing 33rd, which may offset some of the optimism. He has 350 laps to make the necessary gains. | Iowa odds
Speed reads
Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles.
• End of an era: Martin Truex Jr.’s Cup Series career draws to a close | Read article
• Denny reflects on MTJ: Fellow elder-statesman reacts to news | Read article
• Free agency frenzy: Drivers eyeing big JGR opening | Read article
• No small change: Crew chief on what MTJ means to him | Read article
• Asphalt adjustment: Inside look at the Iowa repave | Read article
• Strong starters: Drivers who opened the year with 16 straight top 20s | Photo gallery
• Power Rankings: Chastain’s head of steam for the Heartland | Photo gallery
• New track success: Winners of recent inaugural events | Photo gallery • Waiting for a win: Truex, Logano, Blaney among those still searching | Read article • Turning Point: Unstoppable Larson, Logano for Iowa’s big day | Read article • Racing Insights: Back-to-back wins for Larson? See full finish projections | Read article • Field of 16: How the projected playoff picture shakes out pre-Iowa | Read article • 36 for 36: Check out this week’s survivor pool picks | Read article
• Fantasy Fastlane: Why tire-testers and proven winners deserve lineup spots | Photo gallery
• Spirit of ’76: Remembrances of Donlavey’s Le Mans leap | Read article
• NASCAR Classics: Revisiting when the Cup Series visited Japan | Read article • Fantasy Update: Late lineup pointers from Iowa’s race-day eve | Read article • Paint Scheme Preview: Standouts in the fields in this week’s designs | Pick your favorite
Fast facts ⏩
Race-relevant statistics, brought to you by the experts at Racing Insights.
• Martin Truex Jr., who announced that he will retire at the end of the season, leads the Cup Series’ active driver roster with 664 consecutive starts. That streak began with the 2006 Daytona 500 and ranks sixth on the all-time list, behind Jeff Gordon (797), Ricky Rudd (788), Kevin Harvick (784), Bobby Labonte (704) and Rusty Wallace (697).
• Kyle Larson has the Cup Series’ best average finish (6.46) on short tracks with NASCAR’s Next Gen car, introduced in 2022.
• Chase Elliott leads the Cup Series with 4,452 of a possible 4,453 laps completed. His eighth-place finish at Bristol in March was his only one-lap-down result.
Iowa Speedway was introduced to the Cup Series in grand fashion during the 50-minute practice session on Friday. Five drivers experienced tire woes, with Christopher Bell and Austin Cindric getting the worst of it and having to go to backup cars for Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350. Some drivers remain confused because there were zero tire issues during last month’s Goodyear tire test. With the track gaining more grip on Friday, lap times were nearly a second quicker in practice compared to the test.
NEXT IN LINE: Tyler Reddick, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, William Byron
RISING: Stewart-Haas Racing unloaded off the hauler fast in Friday’s practice and that continued into qualifying. Noah Gragson led the way in practice, continuously jumping to the top of the leaderboard. And while he fell to 23rd in qualifying, Josh Berry and Chase Briscoe picked up the pace. Briscoe will start sixth on Sunday and was ranked in the top 10 in single-lap and 10-lap averages. Berry, a short-track standout, earned his second top-five starting spot of his career and will take the green flag from third spot.
Tyler Reddick has never been considered a short-track ace, though he does have consecutive top-10 finishes in 2024 at tracks measuring less than a mile in length. The No. 45 Toyota was at the top of the chart on 10-lap speeds during Friday’s practice, though did experience a flat tire in the waning minutes of the session. Reddick was the fastest Toyota driver during qualifying in eighth.
FALLING: Leaning on past success, Bell entered this weekend at Iowa among the pre-race favorites. That looked like a good bet early in practice, as Bell was quickest until he became the second driver to experience tire issues. Unlike a few other drivers, his tire cut exiting Turns 3 and 4, meaning the No. 20 Toyota shot up the track, clobbering the outside wall. The Adam Stevens-led team unloaded the backup car and qualified 10th. Bell knows it’s a long race and believes plenty of strategies will play out, so the No. 20 team will have the chance to make it through the field. But having to start from the rear could mean he fails to earn stage points.
Multiple drivers said Alex Bowman’s No. 48 car was among the best cars in the field during practice. Briscoe stated that Bowman was in a “league of his own” over the long run. For all the goodwill Bowman built up on Friday, he will have an uphill battle on Sunday, qualifying 33rd for the 350-lap race. Unless the No. 48 team pulls off strategy during the opening stage, it’s highly likely that he will miss out on stage points.
FEATURED MATCHUPS:
Kyle Larson vs. Denny Hamlin: Larson and Hamlin are among the perennial pre-race favorites. Nothing has changed entering Iowa, with Larson scoring his fourth Busch Light Pole of the season, already matching the most he’s had in a single season (2022). And for someone who had never turned laps at Iowa prior to Friday, Hamlin has been sporty, sitting fifth on 10-lap averages. It seems like the No. 5 car is a slight step ahead of the No. 11 car this weekend, so let’s bank on Larson.
William Byron vs. Martin Truex Jr.: Aside from getting his 2025 plans out of the way on Friday, this weekend has been a struggle for Truex. That’s surprising for one of the best current short-track competitors, but the No. 19 Toyota was 33rd in practice on single-lap speed, 32nd on 10-lap average, and qualified 31st. Byron didn’t flash as one of the best cars in practice but will start fourth. But he’s at least been above 30th all weekend.
Ryan Blaney vs. Joey Logano: Up until Larson went out as the final car in qualifying, it looked as though Blaney would win the pole. He will start second and is a tremendous short-track racer. As is Logano, who will start 12th. The two Team Penske drivers were virtually equal in practice and need good days on Sunday. Maybe put both car numbers into a hat and make a blind pick, but I’ll go with Blaney since he had a better qualifying session.
Chase Elliott vs. Christopher Bell: Even though Bell will have to start at the rear of the field, expect the No. 20 car to be a contender. He is great at Iowa and barring another tire issue, it’s hard to think he won’t be a factor in the race. Elliott has consistently been a top-10 car throughout the weekend, but I’m not wavering from Bell. The No. 20 team has a bunch of data points from the tire test last month that can be applied to the backup car.
