NASCAR Weekend Preview: Iowa Speedway

At just the right time, Ryan Blaney is trending in the right direction.

After a rough stretch that saw his number of DNFs (did not finish) mount to seven in the first 20 races of the NASCAR Cup Series season, the driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford has scored two straight top 10s heading to Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol at Iowa Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Blaney is the defending winner at the 0.875-mile short track, where he led 201 of the 350 laps in last year’s series debut there, including the last 88.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” Blaney said. “That’s a special place for me and for my mom’s side of the family. We had a lot of people there last year supporting us. That was a fun Victory Lane. It’s not often that you get to have 80 people with you in Victory Lane, and heck, half of them I’d never met before—kids of cousins I haven’t seen in years.

“So that was special. So, I’d like to go up there and defend, and we’ll see if we can do that.”

With strips of new pavement added in the corners for last year’s race, the track features a variety of nuances drivers must master.

“It was a tricky one,” Blaney said, “because getting into (Turn) 1, your braking point was old pavement, but then you would get to new pavement like 10 to 15 car-lengths later. So, it was like judging, ‘Hey, I have to break and lift here in the old stuff, but then I have to recalibrate for when I get to the new stuff.

“The corner pace was incredibly high, but I still think it put on a good show.”

The DNFs aside, Blaney hasn’t had a quarrel with the speed in his cars this year.

“We’ve just been in some bad spots at the wrong time and have not been able to get the finishes that we want or deserve,” he said. “I look at it as we’re doing a lot of good things, and I’m happy with where our group is at, and I’m happy with the speed.

“I’m hoping that things smooth up for us, and that’s all you can do, really.”

With a June 1 victory at Nashville and his current seventh-place position in the standings, Blaney, for practical purposes, has clinched a spot in the Cup Series Playoffs.

With four races left in the regular season, however, the competition for the final three berths in the postseason intensifies.

Bubba Wallace added his name to the Playoff rolls with his dramatic victory last Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. That left Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing teammates Chris Buescher and Ryan Preece on opposite sides of the Playoff bubble, with Buescher 42 points to the good over his fellow Ford driver.

Buescher led 15 laps in last year’s Iowa Race but finished 18th. Preece, who has an Iowa victory to his credit in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, was 27th in the No. 41 Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing.

Equally intense is the battle for the Regular Season Championship. Chase Elliott leads Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron by four points, with another teammate, Kyle Larson, just 15 points back in third.

A Hendrick driver has topped the standings after the last 20 Cup races, with Elliott, Byron and Larson sharing the honors. Blaney was the series leader for the first two races of the season.

Larson was fast at Iowa last year, and he sees Sunday’s race as an opportunity.

“We had a good weekend going there last year, securing the pole, a stage win and leading a lot of laps before getting caught up in an incident,” said Larson, whose 34th-place finish in the inaugural Cup race did not reflect the performance of his No. 5 Chevrolet.

“I think it’s going to be quite a bit different this year. I watched the IndyCar race (July 13), and it appeared the new pavement has changed quite a bit, and I imagine the grip level has changed quite a bit more. I don’t really know yet but it’s going to be different. But as I said before, we were good last year, so hopefully we’ll be good again.”

Connor Zilisch goes for fourth straight NASCAR Xfinity Series victory

It would be difficult to imagine a performance more dominant than the one JR Motorsports driver Connor Zilisch has fashioned over the last nine races.

In that span, Zilisch won four races, including the last three in a row. He also finished second three times and posted an average finish of 2.11 over the nine events.

With his win last Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, he notched the 100th victory for JR Motorsports. At 19 years, 4 days, he’s the youngest driver to 1) win three straight races in Xfinity Series history; 2) and to reach six career victories in the series, dethroning Joey Logano.

All six of Zilisch’s Xfinity wins have come in his series debuts at the respective tracks, a streak he’ll attempt to maintain in Saturday’s Hy-Vee Perks 250 at Iowa Speedway (4:30 p.m. ET on CW, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Only two drivers in series history have won four straight races: Sam Ard in 1983 and Noah Gragson in 2022.

Though Zilisch has never raced an Xfinity Series car at Iowa Speedway, two facts argue in his favor: he won last year’s ARCA Menards Series race at the 0.875-mile short track; and Sam Mayer won last year’s race with Zilisch’s current crew chief, Mardy Lindley, calling the shots from Mayer’s pit box.

“I was fortunate enough to win the ARCA race at Iowa last year, so I’m looking forward to using what I learned in that race with a new challenge in the Xfinity car,” Zilisch said. “My crew chief, Mardy Lindley, won the race there with Sam Mayer last year, so I know we’ll have a really good KOA Chevrolet when we get to the track this weekend.

“We’ve been on a roll lately with top-five finishes and trips to Victory Lane, so I’m ready to get to the track and continue that with (sponsor) KOA.”

The Hy-Vee Perks 250 is the third of five short-track races on the NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule this year, but neither of the winners of the first two such races will compete on Saturday.

NASCAR suspended Martinsville winner Austin Hill for one race for intentionally wrecking Aric Almirola last Saturday at Indianapolis, and Bristol winner Kyle Larson is not doing double duty this weekend.

Full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver Austin Dillon will take Hill’s place in the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet at Iowa.

With five races left in the Xfinity Series regular season, there are five berths left in the Playoffs. Cousins Jeb Burton and Harrison Burton are on opposite sides of the eligibility bubble, with Jeb Burton holding a 10-point edge for the final spot in the Playoffs.

NASCAR Cup Series
Next Race: Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol
The Place: Iowa Speedway
Track Length: 0.875 Mile Asphalt Oval
The Date: Sunday, August 3
The Time: 3:30 p.m. ET
The Purse: $9,797,935
TV: USA Network, 3 p.m. ET
Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)
Distance: 306.25 miles (350 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 70),
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 210), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 350)

NASCAR Xfinity Series
Next Race: Hy-Vee Perks 250
The Place: Iowa Speedway
Track Length: 0.875 Mile Asphalt Oval
The Date: Saturday, August 2
The Time: 4:30 p.m. ET
The Purse: $1,651,939
TV: CW, 4 p.m. ET
Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)
Distance: 218.75 miles (250 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 60),
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 120), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 250)

Where To Watch NASCAR This Weekend:  

Friday, August 1

ARCA Race: Atlas 150 (FS1, MRN at 7 p.m. ET)

Saturday, August 2

NXS Practice & Kennametal Pole Qualifying (CW App at 11 a.m. ET)

NCS Practice & Busch Light Pole Qualifying (truTV, MRN, SiriusXM at 1:30 p.m. ET

NXS Race: Hy-Vee Perks 250 (CW Network, MRN, SiriusXM at 4:30 p.m. ET)

Sunday, August 3

NCS Race: Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol (USA Network, MRN, SiriusXM at 3:30 p.m. ET)