{"id":53808,"date":"2025-08-04T18:30:35","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T23:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=53808"},"modified":"2025-08-07T14:17:55","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T19:17:55","slug":"rfks-strong-showing-at-iowa-could-be-the-harbinger-of-future-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/04\/rfks-strong-showing-at-iowa-could-be-the-harbinger-of-future-success\/","title":{"rendered":"RFK\u2019s strong showing at Iowa could be the harbinger of future success"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

NEWTON, Iowa\u2014After Sunday\u2019s Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol, Ryan Preece made a bold assertion.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Ryan Preece, driver of the #60 Mohawk Northeast Inc. Ford, drives during the NASCAR Cup Series Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol at Iowa Speedway on August 03, 2025 in Newton, Iowa. (Photo by Meg Oliphant\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

First, the context. Preece had just finished fifth in the 23rd NASCAR Cup Series race of the season, parlaying pit strategy and an opportune caution into his top-five run.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the stellar result wasn\u2019t enough to propel Preece above the elimination line for the Playoffs. He still trails his Roush Fenway Keselowski teammate, Chris Buescher\u2014the last driver above the line\u2014by 23 points.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s race at Iowa Speedway also was a breakout moment of sorts for team co-owner Brad Keselowski, who won the first two stages and finished third in the race.<\/p>\n

Keselowski\u2019s chances to win disappeared amid a string of cautions that allowed race winner William Byron and runner-up Chase Briscoe to save enough fuel to get to the finish line ahead of him.<\/p>\n

That shouldn\u2019t dull the luster, however, of back-to-back top-five finishes for both Preece and Keselowski, who finished fourth and fifth, respectively, at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 27.<\/p>\n

Before the race at Indy, RFK hadn\u2019t placed two drivers in the top five in the same event since Buescher ran second and Keselowski fourth on March 10, 2024 at Phoenix Raceway.<\/p>\n

Preece was enthused enough after the race to offer that all three RFK drivers could qualify for the Playoffs, even though only three spots are still available, and Keselowski can advance to the postseason only by winning one of the three remaining races in the regular season.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, I look forward to Watkins Glen, Richmond and Daytona,\u201d Preece said of the next three Cup venues. \u201cAll three of us can still get in (the Playoffs}. It\u2019s going to take a lot of perseverance and a lot of luck, but we have fast race cars, and we can get the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n

In reality, there\u2019s only one way for that to happen. Each RFK driver must win one of the next three races to knock out both Tyler Reddick and Alex Bowman.<\/p>\n

Though he finished 19th on Sunday, Reddick is still 122 points above the elimination line and ostensibly secure for a Playoff spot on points\u2014unless there are three new winners from below the cut line.<\/p>\n

Bowman is 63 points ahead of Preece after finishing seventh at Iowa, also hoping to qualify on points if he doesn\u2019t win one of the next three races.<\/p>\n

For argument\u2019s sake, however, let\u2019s say that Buescher defends last year\u2019s victory at the Watkins Glen International. He\u2019ll have to beat road course ace Shane van Gisbergen, but he did just that in 2024. One down, two to go.<\/p>\n

Buescher is also a candidate to win at Richmond, where he took the checkered flag in the second race of 2023, but Keselowski led 102 laps in that same event and claimed two victories at the 0.75-mile track before the introduction of the Gen 7 race car in 2022.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s concede a Richmond win to Keselowski. Two down, one victory to go.<\/p>\n

Preece would then have to have a breakout triumph at Daytona, where he has only one finish better than 31st in the last five races. That\u2019s what it would take to knock Reddick out of the running, but Preece\u2019s luck has to turn at some point. Doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

After all, in the crucible that is Daytona, all things are possible.<\/p>\n

Three races, three wins and three Playoff berths\u2014before reality sets in.<\/p>\n

The far more likely scenario is that one RFK driver will advance to the postseason at the expense of another. Nevertheless, the performances of Keselowski and Preece at Iowa were enough to instill hope in an organization that has been through its share of rough times this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we want to win, but we\u2019re in contention, that\u2019s for sure,\u201d Keselowski said after the race. \u201cWe will keep putting solid runs on the board, and I think this will come to us. We have some pretty strong Ford Mustangs right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Strong enough for each of the drivers to win one of the next three races? Probably not.<\/p>\n

But strong enough to know that long-awaited victories may materialize in the not-too-distant future? Very likely indeed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service NEWTON, Iowa\u2014After Sunday\u2019s Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol, Ryan Preece made a bold assertion. First, the context. Preece had just finished fifth in the 23rd NASCAR Cup Series race of the season, parlaying pit strategy and an opportune caution into his top-five run. Unfortunately, the stellar result wasn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":53799,"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":[456,16,580],"class_list":["post-53808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-iowa-speedway","tag-nascar","tag-ryan-preece"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2228389080-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-dZS","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53808","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=53808"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53809,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53808\/revisions\/53809"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}