{"id":53752,"date":"2025-07-31T13:24:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T18:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=53752"},"modified":"2025-08-07T13:26:01","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T18:26:01","slug":"nascar-weekend-preview-iowa-speedway-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/31\/nascar-weekend-preview-iowa-speedway-2\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Weekend Preview: Iowa Speedway"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

Ryan Blaney on upswing nearing defense of NASCAR Cup win at Iowa<\/b><\/p>\n

At just the right time, Ryan Blaney is trending in the right direction.<\/p>\n

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Ryan Blaney, driver of the #12 Advance Auto Parts Ford, leads a pack of cars during the NASCAR Cup Series Iowa Corn 350 at Iowa Speedway on June 16, 2024 in Newton, Iowa. (Photo by James Gilbert\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u2019s Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol at Iowa Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

Blaney is the defending winner at the 0.875-mile short track, where he led 201 of the 350 laps in last year\u2019s series debut there, including the last 88.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to it,\u201d Blaney said. \u201cThat\u2019s a special place for me and for my mom\u2019s side of the family. We had a lot of people there last year supporting us. That was a fun Victory Lane. It\u2019s not often that you get to have 80 people with you in Victory Lane, and heck, half of them I\u2019d never met before\u2014kids of cousins I haven\u2019t seen in years.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that was special. So, I\u2019d like to go up there and defend, and we\u2019ll see if we can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

With strips of new pavement added in the corners for last year\u2019s race, the track features a variety of nuances drivers must master.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a tricky one,\u201d Blaney said, \u201cbecause 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, \u2018Hey, 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe corner pace was incredibly high, but I still think it put on a good show.\u201d<\/p>\n

The DNFs aside, Blaney hasn\u2019t had a quarrel with the speed in his cars this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve just been in some bad spots at the wrong time and have not been able to get the finishes that we want or deserve,\u201d he said. \u201cI look at it as we\u2019re doing a lot of good things, and I\u2019m happy with where our group is at, and I\u2019m happy with the speed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hoping that things smooth up for us, and that\u2019s all you can do, really.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

With four races left in the regular season, however, the competition for the final three berths in the postseason intensifies.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Buescher led 15 laps in last year\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Larson was fast at Iowa last year, and he sees Sunday\u2019s race as an opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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,\u201d said Larson, whose 34th-place finish in the inaugural Cup race did not reflect the performance of his No. 5 Chevrolet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s 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\u2019t really know yet but it\u2019s going to be different. But as I said before, we were good last year, so hopefully we\u2019ll be good again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Connor Zilisch goes for fourth straight NASCAR Xfinity Series victory<\/b><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

With his win last Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, he notched the 100th victory for JR Motorsports. At 19 years, 4 days, he\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

All six of Zilisch\u2019s Xfinity wins have come in his series debuts at the respective tracks, a streak he\u2019ll attempt to maintain in Saturday\u2019s Hy-Vee Perks 250 at Iowa Speedway (4:30 p.m. ET on CW, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

Only two drivers in series history have won four straight races: Sam Ard in 1983 and Noah Gragson in 2022.<\/p>\n

Though Zilisch has never raced an Xfinity Series car at Iowa Speedway, two facts argue in his favor: he won last year\u2019s ARCA Menards Series race at the 0.875-mile short track; and Sam Mayer won last year\u2019s race with Zilisch\u2019s current crew chief, Mardy Lindley, calling the shots from Mayer\u2019s pit box.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was fortunate enough to win the ARCA race at Iowa last year, so I\u2019m looking forward to using what I learned in that race with a new challenge in the Xfinity car,\u201d Zilisch said. \u201cMy crew chief, Mardy Lindley, won the race there with Sam Mayer last year, so I know we\u2019ll have a really good KOA Chevrolet when we get to the track this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been on a roll lately with top-five finishes and trips to Victory Lane, so I\u2019m ready to get to the track and continue that with (sponsor) KOA.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver Austin Dillon will take Hill\u2019s place in the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet at Iowa.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Ryan Blaney on upswing nearing defense of NASCAR Cup win at Iowa 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":46766,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_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}},"categories":[11],"tags":[456,16],"class_list":["post-53752","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\/2024\/06\/GettyImages-2157895206-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1706&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-dYY","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53752"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53755,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53752\/revisions\/53755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}