NEWTON — There were no Iowans racing in the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race at Iowa Speedway on Sunday, but Ryan Blaney was about as close as you could get.
Blaney, the defending NASCAR Cup Series Champion, was born in Ohio and raised in North Carolina. But his mother, Lisa, is from Chariton, about an hour southeast of Des Moines. His father, Dave, won the 1997 Knoxville Nationals. He had 80 friends and family members at Sunday’s race. On Saturday he joked that it’d be hard to get all of them into victory lane if he won.
With his victory Sunday, Blaney became the first driver to win at Iowa Speedway in the NASCAR Truck, Xfinity and Cup Series.
His supporters were in Newton in 2012 when he won his first NASCAR Truck race and in 2015 when he won an Xfinity Series race.
“It was really cool to have them all out to support me,” Blaney said. “I’m happy we got them all across the racetrack into victory lane. I didn’t know how we were going to do that. They all made shirts and the track officials believed them.”
Blaney’s grandparents lived in central Iowa for a long time. Blaney drove from North Carolina to Iowa each winter for Christmas. He spent significant time visiting in Chariton and Ankeny, he said.
“I just enjoyed the area as a kid. It’s just a fun area. It’s different,” Blaney said. “It’s a little bit different this time of year. It’s brutal up here at that time of year (winter).”
Blaney led 201 laps and held off William Byron for the victory. Chase Elliott was third, followed by Christopher Bell and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Coming into the weekend there were fears that a repave of all four corners would limit passing and create a boring show for the Cup Series debut at Iowa Speedway. Instead, fans were treated to tight racing on a postcard-perfect night in which drivers had multiple lanes to pass in the corners on the 7/8-mile track.
Kyle Larson won the pole Saturday for Sunday’s race with a time of 23.084 seconds. It was Larson’s 20th pole in 347 Cup Series starts. Larson dominated the early part of the 70-lap first stage, lapping Denny Hamlin about 35 laps in and taking a three-second lead over Blaney.
Blaney stayed out during the first set of pit stops after AJ Almendinger blew a tire and caused a caution on lap 51 after hitting the turn one wall. Larson restarted 31st after pitting, but moved up 21 spots in about 20 laps at the start of the 140-lap second stage. His win secured a playoff berth and allows him to focus on the playoffs with nine races remaining in the regular season.
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On lap 172 Denny Hamlin punted Larson in turn two after Larson appeared to miss coming to pit road on the previous lap. Daniel Hemric brought out a caution on lap 183 after contacting the wall. After the restart on lap 188 Larson cruised to an easy stage two win.
But on the ensuing restart to start Stage 3 Daniel Suarez got into the left rear of Larson as they exited turn four and sent him into the wall. Larson reported steering issues caused by a bent toe-link. The incident also collected Hamlin, who had a tire mark on his left side from Larson’s car.
After eight cautions, six for cause, over the first 266 laps, the final 84 laps ran caution-free.
On his final pit stop Blaney got just two new right-side tires. His crew chief, Jonathan Hassler, said he was surprised more teams did not go with two tires on the final stop.
Blaney finished the race with well over 120 laps on his left-side tires, Hassler said.
“The left-side tires weren’t wearing a whole lot,” Hassler said. “I certainly felt like we weren’t in jeopardy of failing a tire by doing two. I definitely know we maybe left a little bit of speed on the table.”
Byron said when he got 15 or more laps on his tires he couldn’t close the gap between him and Blaney. Once Larson wrecked, Blaney had the best car. So Byron was not surprised that taking only two tires worked.
“Just a treacherous night. The restarts are really sketchy,” Byron said. “I don’t think tires mattered in that instance because he was the best car.”
Blaney’s win shakes up playoffs
Blaney came into the race 14th in points, 47 points ahead of Chase Briscoe, who sits in 17th in the playoff standings. The top 16 drivers get into NASCAR’s playoffs. Blaney appeared to have a playoff berth locked up two weeks ago at World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis when he had a commanding lead. But he ran out of gas on the final lap and was passed by his teammate Austin Cindric. Blaney thought of the loss at WWT Raceway as he took the white flag, he said.
“Deja vu, for sure,” Blaney said. “The pain of two weeks ago pops up in your head. But I tried to focus on the gap we had and try to keep it. But I had some thoughts of that.”
Blaney’s win shook up the playoff bubble. His teammate, Joey Logano, entered the night 14 points behind Chris Buescher for the final playoff spot. Buescher, No. 17 from RFK Racing, came in sitting in 16th place, 32 points behind Blaney. Afterward Logano said on pit road that he was happy with a sixth-place finish.
“You never feel safe until you get the win, but all we can do is keep snapping points up until we get the win,” Logano said. “Days like today you got to get what you can. We got some stage points in the first stage.”
Kyle Busch came into the evening 19th in points, 20 points behind Buescher. After a lap 265 issue his team took his car to garage. Busch retired from the race around lap 295. A toe link may have broken, Busch said on the broadcast.
“Next-gen parts and pieces broke,” Busch said on the broadcast.
Multiple lanes develop despite repave skepticism
Drivers and analysts had speculated that the bottom lane would be the dominant lane in the corners because all four corners were partially repaved. A second lane developed, however, alleviating those concerns and creating passing opportunities.
Christopher Bell, driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, said during a May tire test that he worried passing would be tough because of increased grip added to the track by the repaved sections. NBC analyst Steve Letarte also expressed concern, saying “Passing is going to be very difficult.”
By Lap 239 Letarte let America know how thrilled he was with the track.
“There’s been more three-wide racing than any short track that I have seen,” Letarte said on the USA Network broadcast.
All night, fans were treated to thrilling battles more reminiscent of much longer tracks, like Iowa Speedway’s sister track in Kansas City, Kansas. On lap 94 Hamlin battled three-wide with John Hunter Nemechek and Harrison Burton through turns three and four. One lap later Hamlin still battled Nemechek in the corner.
It wasn’t always easy to pass. On lap 159 LaJoie and Austin Dillon were battling for position when LaJoie almost sent Dillon into the Turn 3 wall as Dillon tried to complete the pass.
Later after a lap 188 restart Chase Elliott got in a dogfight with Josh Berry as they battled for second.
NASCAR Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace, a commentator for the Motor Racing Network, designed Iowa Speedway. Wallace said on MRN that he was thrilled by the action on the track.
“Two, three, four-wide lap-after-lap,” Wallace said. “They’re all over the track.”
Tire gremlins persist
During Friday’s practice several teams blew front tires after 20-lap runs. Xfinity Series teams run far different tires with different rubber compounds, but struggled similarly with tire failures Saturday.
Almendinger was the first victim of a tire failure Sunday when his right front tire blew on lap 51 and sent his No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet into the turn one wall.
Michael McDowell blew a tire on lap 115, but the race stayed green. Zane Smith also blew a right front on lap 129, but the race stayed green. Ross Chastain blew a right front tire on Lap 165, but kept it out of the fence and the race stayed green.
In all, there were seven blowouts in the race.
“It was in the back of my mind a little bit,” Blaney said. “I think night time helped it, cooling everything off.”
NASCAR happy with attendance
Thousands of fans packed the midway in front of the main grandstands five hours before the race began. As the day wore on, the tailgaters’ smoke in the air only grew stronger. When the Cup Series garages opened, large packs of fans gawked at cars as mechanics greased tires and fired engines before wheeling cars to the starting grid.
NASCAR officials said repeatedly throughout the weekend that the series is pleased with attendance in Newton. Fans in parking lots came from across the Midwest with license plates from Missouri, Nebraska and Michigan, to name a few states.
Sunday’s Cup Series race sold out before tickets officially went on sale to the public. Saturday’s Xfinity Series race sold out months ago. Friday’s ARCA Menards Series and Cup Series practice day also came close to selling out. The grandstand seats only about 24,000 spectators — small by Cup Series standards — but with temporary suites and camping capacity the track had about 45,000 spectators, according to Matt Humphrey, NASCAR senior director of track communications.
Saturday’s rain led to the cancellation of Xfinity Series qualifying and delayed the start of Cup Series qualifying. But by and large the weekend had few delays. Sunday had temperatures in excess of 90 degrees on a sun-drenched day to race in the middle of farm land.
Fans in the Newton Club and suites in the middle of the track performed two card stunts before the race, one with the American flag and another with the words, “Thank You Fans.” As the flag went green, thousands of fans waved hats and stood on their feet.
Logano said Saturday drivers feel the energy around the race, and he said Iowa should remain on the schedule. He kept that sentiment after the race Sunday.
“It seemed like it was a pretty entertaining race,” Logano said. “The place was packed. The fans showed up. From the inside it looks pretty good.”
Blaney also said the crowd and racing seemed awesome.
“I thought it was pretty racy,” Blaney said. “It exceeded my expectations. Packed house. If that doesn’t make you want to come back here, I don’t know what will.”
Results
- Ryan Blaney; 2. William Byron; 3. Chase Elliott; 4. Christopher Bell; 5. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.; 6. Joey Logano; 7. Josh Berry; 8, Alex Bowman; 9. Daniel Suarez; 10. Brad Keselowski; 11. Ross Chastain; 12. Todd Gilliland; 13. Justin Haley; 14. Carson Hocevar; 15. Martin Truex Jr.; 16. Noah Gragson; 17. Bubba Wallace; 18. Chris Buescher; 19. Austin Dillon; 20. Harrison Burton; 21. Corey LaJoie; 22. Tyler Reddick; 23. Michael McDowell; 24. Denny Hamlin; 25. Ty Gibbs; 26. John H. Nemechek; 27. Ryan Preece; 28. Chase Briscoe; 29. Daniel Hemric; 30. Austin Cindric; 31. Zane Smith; 32. Erik Jones; 33. Kaz Grala; 34. Kyle Larson; 35. Kyle Busch; 36. AJ Allmendinger
Box score
- Eight cautions for 51 Laps. Six cautions for incidents and two cautions for the end of stages one and two.
- Lead changes: 17
- Leaders: 9
Lap leaders
- No. 12 Ryan Blaney-201 laps.
- No. 5 Kyle Larson-80 laps.
- No. 4 Josh Berry- 32 laps.
- No. 17 Chris Buescher-16 laps.
- No. 20 Christopher Bell-seven laps.
- No. 6 Brad Keselowski-five laps.
- No. 99 Daniel Suarez-Four laps.
- No. 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr.-four laps.
- No. 9 Chase Elliott-one lap.
Incidents
- Lap 3-Spire Motorsports No. 77 Carson Hocevar got into Spire Motorsports No. 71 Zane Smith who spun Spire Motorsports No. 7 Corey LaJoie.
- Lap 51-AJ Almendinger hits the wall in turn one after a right front tire failure. No. 16 out.
- Lap 81-Noah Gragson spun John Hunter Nemechek and Ty Gibbs in turn four.
- Lap 183- Daniel Hemric contacted the wall exiting turn two.
- Lap 221-Daniel Suarez sent Kyle Larson into the wall, who collected Denny Hamlin. Kyle Busch also collected.
- Lap 261-Chris Buescher blown tire, hits wall.
Philip Joens can be reached at 515-284-8184, pjoens@registermedia.com or on Twitter @Philip_Joens.
