NASCAR heads back East to Iowa Speedway after a week in the Hills of Wine Country.
Hyvee Perks 250
Saturday, June 15 @ 3:30PM EST
Newton, Iowa
250 Laps/218.75 Miles
Shane van Gisbergen swept the Xfinity Series mini West Coast swing and gained a lot of new fans in the process. Van Gisbergen forced Austin Hill out of the way on the final restart, much to the dismay of Hill, but very much to the enjoyment of many fans online. SVG took the lead and never looked back winning his second consecutive race after taking the checkered flag at Portland.
Most Recent Winner At Iowa Speedway
The NASCAR Xfinity Series has not visited Iowa since 2019 and the winner of the July race that year was Chase Briscoe. For what it’s worth, Christopher Bell won the June race at Iowa Speedway that year.
Names To Watch
Justin Allgaier: Allgaier is one of a small number of drivers in the field who have raced at Iowa. He has the most experience as well with 16 starts. Only Ryan Sieg and Brandon Jones come anywhere near Allgaier’s experience with 12 and 10 starts respectively.
Brett Moffitt: Moffitt returns to the Xfinity Series, this time with Joe Gibbs Racing at his home track. The Grimes, Iowa native will be piloting the #19 Toyota Supra. In 117 starts, Moffitt has never found victory lane in the series, he will certainly have a chance to change that this weekend.
My Pick To Win: Justin Allgaier
Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol
Sunday, June 16 @ 7:00PM EST
Newton, Iowa
350 Laps/306.25 Miles
Kyle Larson won for the second time in Sonoma, California running down Martin Truex Jr. and Chris Buescher in the late stages of a fascinatingly exciting race in Wine Country. The first two stages were marred with caution after caution which is very uncharacteristic for Sonoma Raceway. All of those cautions put the teams in many different boxes strategically and in the second half, the strategy shined through. Everything calmed down and Sonoma looked more like Sonoma with the entire Final Stage going wire to wire, uninterrupted. But the aforementioned strategy and surprising amounts of good battles that arose from the field getting mixed up led to an unexpectedly intriguing finish.
Most Recent Winner At Iowa
N/A. This will be the NASCAR Cup Series first ever visit to the track.
Names To Watch
William Byron: Willy B won his first Xfinity Series race at Iowa Speedway in 2017, the season in which he went onto win the title. Byron has 3 wins thus far in the season, though teammate Kyle Larson appears to have taken the title of Championship Favorite. Byron will look to reclaim that title this weekend.
Joey Logano: Logano and his team have an uncanny ability to win at new venues. He won the inaugural Clash at the LA Coliseum. Then followed it up by winning the inaugural Cup Series race at Gateway in St. Louis. In 2023, he won the third race ever on Atlanta’s reconfiguration. Just last weekend, he won the pole on Sonoma’s fresh repave. But to top it all, it might not be a venue, but Logano won the first Championship with the Generation 7 car in 2022. If history says anything, and it generally does, he will be a threat on Sunday Night.
My Pick To Win: William Byron
Image Sourced Via Iowa Speedway
