{"id":60030,"date":"2026-08-08T14:30:42","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=60030"},"modified":"2026-08-09T11:20:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T16:20:37","slug":"nascar-saturday-iowa-speedway-notebook-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/08\/nascar-saturday-iowa-speedway-notebook-3\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Saturday Iowa Speedway Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

New pavement should enhance racing at Iowa Speedway<\/b><\/p>\n

NEWTON, Iowa \u2014 Ryan Blaney has mixed feelings about the imminent repaving project at Iowa Speedway.<\/p>\n

Ryan Preece thinks it\u2019s necessary. Christopher Bell applauds it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

On Monday, the speedway will embark on a $20-million renovation project that includes a complete repave of the racing surface.<\/p>\n

The new asphalt will replace the hybrid surface that was partially repaved in the corners before the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race in 2024.<\/p>\n

Blaney has enjoyed enormous success in the two events at Iowa. He won the debut in 2024 and finished fourth last year. His average running position for the two races is a series-best 3.9.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the track, the way it is now, has a lot of character in it,\u201d Blaney said. \u201c\u2026I think with the full repave, I hope they do a decent job with progressive banking the way it needs to be, where we can run up the track\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope they bank up the third and fourth lanes, and it\u2019ll be a heck of a race track if you\u2019re not locked onto the bottom. Time will tell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Preece\u2019s opinion is based on a first-hand inspection of the racing surface.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrad (Keselowski), Chris (Buescher) and I kind of did the track walk earlier, and you could see separation between some of the lanes,\u201d Preece said. \u201cSo, I think it needs (a repave), unfortunately.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m curious to see if they\u2019re going to do anything different with banking, but yeah, it\u2019s time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bell believes the repaving has the potential to widen the track. The driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs racing Toyota won twice and scored two poles and two runner-up results at the track from 2017-2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cIowa was my favorite track before this half-repave thing that we have right now,\u201d Bell said. \u201cRight now, you have two grooves, and it\u2019s never going to get any more than two grooves. At least now, with the fresh repave, it\u2019s going to have the opportunity to get a lot wider.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haas Factory Team adds Dean Thompson to driver roster<\/b><\/p>\n

Dean Thompson will join Haas Factory Team\u2019s NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series roster as the organization adds a third car next season, team president Joe Custer announced Saturday at Iowa Speedway.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a multi-year deal,\u201d Custer said. \u201cWe\u2019re super excited about Dean coming on board. We are expanding at Haas Factory Team to a three-car O\u2019Reilly program. We love the O\u2019Reilly Series.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegarding Dean, I\u2019ve known Dean for a long time\u2026 He\u2019s a Southern California kid. We\u2019re from Southern California. Watched him grow. Watched him experience all different forms of racing. He comes from a family of racers\u2014his grandfather, his father. His whole family supports racing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thompson, 24, currently drives for Sam Hunt Racing. In his second full season with that organization, he has posted a pair of top-10 finishes with a best of sixth at Talladega in April. Last year, he scored his only career top five in the O\u2019Reilly Series, a fifth-place finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up racing around Cole (Custer, Joe Custer\u2019s son),\u201d Thompson said. \u201cJoe\u2019s been a big part in my growth as a driver. We\u2019ve known Joe my whole life. Where to go, who to talk to, who we race for\u2014he\u2019s always led us in the right direction and given us good contacts.<\/p>\n

\u201cFinally, it all comes together full circle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Custer said the organization is still working through its O\u2019Reilly Series plans for 2027. Current drivers are Sheldon Creed, who scored his first career victory this season at EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta), and Sam Mayer, who won back-to-back races at Iowa Speedway in 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n

As of yet, neither Mayer nor Creed has re-signed with the organization for next year.<\/p>\n

Custer asserted the organization\u2019s commitment to its single-car NASCAR Cup Series operation, with Cole Custer as the driver.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have unfinished business in the Cup Series as Haas Factory Team,\u201d Joe Custer said. \u201cWe are dead committed. (Team owner) Gene Haas is an F1 owner, a NASCAR Cup owner and an O\u2019Reilly owner, and we intend to keep it that way\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to try to figure out Cup as a single-car team, and we have a ways to go. Stay tuned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chase Briscoe broadens his racing interests with sprint car team purchase<\/b><\/p>\n

Like his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe now owns a race team.<\/p>\n

Unlike Hamlin\u2019s organization, Briscoe\u2019s new acquisition doesn\u2019t race stock cars.<\/p>\n

Briscoe announced Saturday morning at Iowa Speedway that he has acquired Brent Marks Racing and will field 410 winged sprint cars, with Marks as the driver and general manager, in the High Limit Racing Series founded by Cup driver Kyle Larson and champion sprint car racer Brad Sweet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re excited to announced that we\u2019ve bought out Brent Marks Racing, and it will become Chase Briscoe Racing in the High Limit Series,\u201d Briscoe said. \u201cWe\u2019re excited to have a full-time car on a national tour. It\u2019s something for me that\u2019s been a childhood dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Marks, Briscoe gets a fully operational elite team and a championship-caliber driver. Marks\u2019 resume already includes victories in the high-paying Kings Royal, the Historical Big One and Williams Grove National Open.<\/p>\n

Christopher Bell, another of Briscoe\u2019s JGR teammates and himself an elite dirt racer, voiced his approval.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy for him,\u201d Bell said. “I think it\u2019s really cool. I think it\u2019s great for dirt-track racing. Brent\u2019s a great driver. I think (Briscoe) did really good getting an organization that is already acclimated to each other. They should have success right out of the gate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service New pavement should enhance racing at Iowa Speedway NEWTON, Iowa \u2014 Ryan Blaney has mixed feelings about the imminent repaving project at Iowa Speedway. Ryan Preece thinks it\u2019s necessary. Christopher Bell applauds it. On Monday, the speedway will embark on a $20-million renovation project that includes a complete repave […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":60046,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[456,16],"class_list":["post-60030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-iowa-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/iowa-paving-2.jpg?fit=1300%2C690","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-fCe","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60030"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60047,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60030\/revisions\/60047"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}