Grip Strips or Slip Strips? Iowa Might Be in for a Slide Fest

gettyimages-2228220254 — NEWTON, IOWA - AUGUST 02: Ryan Blaney, driver of the #12 Wabash Ford, drives during practice for the NASCAR Cup Series Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol at Iowa Speedway on August 02, 2025 in Newton, Iowa. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

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The new pavement at Iowa Speedway has aged for only a year, but NASCAR Cup Series drivers can expect a different track when they line up for Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol (3:30 p.m. ET on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Strips of new asphalt in the corners provided more grip in last year’s race, won by Ryan Blaney. But with a year of weathering, Blaney expects the advantage of the “grip strips” to have dissipated to some degree.

“The asphalt definitely looks a lot lighter than last year, like it’s taken some wear,” Blaney said. “And in the Xfinity practice (on Saturday), it was nice. They were in the second groove immediately. So I think it’s going to be pretty racy.

“Honestly, this race track was pretty racy last year when the second lane came in. It kind of had two-and-a-half, three lanes, really, at the end of the day. I’m curious to see what the tire does.

“Talking to some Xfinity guys after practice, they thought it was a little less grip than what it was last year, and I think that’s just going to get worse and worse as the weekend goes on and rubber gets laid down, and the track continues to lose a little grip.”

Brenden “Butterbean” Queen, winner of Friday’s ARCA Menards Series race at Iowa, can attest to some of Blaney’s suppositions. Queen picked the outside lane for restarts at the 0.875 short track, expecting to find more grip in the repaved strips.

“It makes it really fun to drive, ‘cause we like to be able to slip around and have to manage it,” Queen said. “The thing that caught me off guard was I thought the top was going to be so dominant on a restart, and it was, if you could maintain into Turn 1.

“The problem was, that long patch to the restart line I though was going to be extra grip, but it was kind of like a sandy dust, and I had a ton of wheel-spin issues, and even worse when I transitioned to the old pavement versus that patch.”