What to Watch: Fields of opportunities in Iowa debut, final playoff push
Iowa Corn 350
(⏰ Sunday, 7 p.m. ET | USA Network | NBC Sports App | MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Weekend schedule | TV schedule | Weather tracker | NASCAR 101
Location: Newton, Iowa
Track length: 0.875 miles
Race purse: $8,881,630
Race distance: 350 laps | 306.25 miles
Stages: 70 | 210 | 350
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Starting lineup: Kyle Larson to lead the field to green flag
Pit stall assignments: See where drivers will pit
Defending winner: None; inaugural event | Cup drivers with national series wins at Iowa
Key things to watch
Friday and Saturday sessions
Rain curtailed Busch Light Pole Qualifying to a single round of time trials, and that was all that points leader Kyle Larson needed to notch his fourth pole of the season and the 20th of his Cup Series career. Larson hustled the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to a best lap of 136.458 mph. Defending Cup Series champ Ryan Blaney will share the front row for Sunday’s 350-lapper after putting the No. 12 Team Penske Ford second on the qualifications chart. | Qualifying recap
Noah Gragson set the fastest lap in an eventful 50-minute session with multiple incidents Friday afternoon, putting his No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford atop the speed charts at 137.988 mph. Ty Gibbs was second-fastest in practice (136.559 mph), but his No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was among those involved in the handful of tangles, joining JGR teammate Christopher Bell, Team Penske’s Austin Cindric and Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain among the trouble-impacted. The session set an early tone for how the tires might perform on the freshly, partially repaved 0.875-mile oval and influence Sunday’s race. | Practice recap
Big story line
Another Midwest move in Iowa’s debut, and the postseason focus sharpens
When NASCAR announced its purchase of Iowa Speedway in November 2013, the news release flatly stated: “NASCAR has no plans for Iowa Speedway to host a NASCAR (Sprint) Cup Series race next year or in the immediate future.” So it wasn’t immediate, but that ‘future’ moment for the Hawkeye State facility has finally arrived, and it’s a welcome debut for the Midwesterners in the field.
“It‘s a national sport and it‘s important, in my mind, to really live that out and I think we‘re doing that by racing here in Iowa,” said Michigan native Brad Keselowski, a three-time Iowa winner in Xfinity Series competition. “It‘s pretty much the exact middle of the country. If I was throwing a dart at a dart board, probably as close as you could get to the center would be Iowa and I think that‘s important. There‘s a lot of great race fans here that, I think, for a long time have been somewhat under-represented with the tracks that they‘re around or that they get to go to. We started to work our way out there a little bit with Kansas and some of those tracks, which is great. I think that was a good win for us, and it‘s nice to see us continue to do that with a race here in Iowa.”
Visiting a new track presents its own challenges, and Iowa’s 7/8-mile layout represents an in-betweener for other ovals on the schedule — 0.75-mile Richmond Raceway and 1-mile Phoenix Raceway, in particular. That newness is amplified by a partial repave, including a patch of fresh asphalt that stops just before the restart zone but is longer in the high groove, which could affect lane choice and drivers’ tactics before the green flag.
That new pavement also came into focus with some tire issues in Friday’s practice. Christopher Bell, one of three drivers who participated in a Goodyear tire test May 28, was one of the victims with a hard hit in his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Bell noted a strange contrast between last month’s test, where teams clicked off 50-lap runs with relative ease; Bell made just 19 laps before his issue in Friday’s practice.
The race’s spot on the calendar comes at a pivotal time, kicking off the final 10-race run to the Cup Series Playoffs. A pair of two-time Cup Series champions — Kyle Busch and Joey Logano — sit perilously just outside the provisional cut-off line for the 16-driver grid, and Bubba Wallace holds the final spot by a slim eight points. Logano, in particular, has shown a recent knack for winning at new or repaved venues, and Iowa checks both those boxes.
Nine drivers have won races this season, so the door remains open for another first-time winner to claim a postseason spot. Martin Truex Jr. and Chris Buescher both missed out on substantial chances to break through last weekend at Sonoma Raceway, where Kyle Larson held serve with his third win of the 2024 campaign. Both drivers have some cushion in the points standings, but the last 10 races before the postseason field is set will be crucial for all of those not already locked in.
TICKETS: Don’t miss the July 7 Chicago Street Race
History tells us…
Actually, history may not tell us much. Several current Cup Series drivers have a history of experience and success in other NASCAR and ARCA tours at Iowa, but with the Cup Series being on a different vector, there may not be much carry-over.
“Probably not, unfortunately,” Ricky Stenhouse Jr. said with a laugh when asked about his three Xfinity wins here. “But any time you come to a place that you have good memories, I feel like it‘s always beneficial. Luckily I‘ve got some good memories, because I‘ve got some really bad memories from here too, as well, from early on in my career. I got to do a simulator session this week. A lot of the characteristics, at least on the scan that we ran, there were a few things that were similar. But yeah, the repave is definitely going to be tricky and different.”
Stenhouse and Keselowski are multi-time winners here in NASCAR’s national series with three Xfinity wins each. That list also includes Erik Jones (one Iowa win in Xfinity, two in Trucks), Christopher Bell (two Xfinity wins), William Byron (one each in Xfinity and Trucks), and Ryan Blaney (one Xfinity, one in Trucks).
As far as short-track performance in the Cup Series’ Next Gen era, Denny Hamlin has risen to the forefront with four wins in the last 13 short-track events. That span includes three wins and five top-three finishes in the last six short-track races.
He may not be the betting favorite to win, but watch out for…
ALEX BOWMAN. Setting off at 45-to-1 odds, the driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet slots in as a mid-major on the Vegas sportsbooks’ lists, but he was third on the Cup Series practice boards — both in single-lap and 10-lap average categories. His last two finishes — 28th at Gateway, 15th at Sonoma — have cooled off his recent run of five straight top-10 finishes, but Bowman drew mention from fellow competitor Chase Briscoe when a local reporter asked him about the drivers to beat on Sunday. “Alex Bowman, I thought was super fast in the long run yesterday,” Briscoe said. “He kind of was in a league of his own, so he’d be another.” That bullish statement was made before Bowman qualified a disappointing 33rd, which may offset some of the optimism. He has 350 laps to make the necessary gains. | Iowa odds
Speed reads
Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles.
• End of an era: Martin Truex Jr.’s Cup Series career draws to a close | Read article
• Asphalt adjustment: Inside look at the Iowa repave | Read article
• Strong starters: Drivers who opened the year with 16 straight top 20s | Photo gallery
• Power Rankings: Chastain’s head of steam for the Heartland | Photo gallery
• New track success: Winners of recent inaugural events | Photo gallery
• Waiting for a win: Truex, Logano, Blaney among those still searching | Read article
• Turning Point: Unstoppable Larson, Logano for Iowa’s big day | Read article
• Racing Insights: Back-to-back wins for Larson? See full finish projections | Read article
• Field of 16: How the projected playoff picture shakes out pre-Iowa | Read article
• 36 for 36: Check out this week’s survivor pool picks | Read article
• Fantasy Fastlane: Why tire-testers and proven winners deserve lineup spots | Photo gallery
• Spirit of ’76: Remembrances of Donlavey’s Le Mans leap | Read article
• NASCAR Classics: Revisiting when the Cup Series visited Japan | Read article
• Fantasy Update: Late lineup pointers from Iowa’s race-day eve | Read article
• Paint Scheme Preview: Standouts in the fields in this week’s designs | Pick your favorite
Fast facts ⏩
Race-relevant statistics, brought to you by the experts at Racing Insights.
• Martin Truex Jr., who announced that he will retire at the end of the season, leads the Cup Series’ active driver roster with 664 consecutive starts. That streak began with the 2006 Daytona 500 and ranks sixth on the all-time list, behind Jeff Gordon (797), Ricky Rudd (788), Kevin Harvick (784), Bobby Labonte (704) and Rusty Wallace (697).
• Kyle Larson has the Cup Series’ best average finish (6.46) on short tracks with NASCAR’s Next Gen car, introduced in 2022.
• Chase Elliott leads the Cup Series with 4,452 of a possible 4,453 laps completed. His eighth-place finish at Bristol in March was his only one-lap-down result.
