1 day agoZane Smith and his Spire Motorsports car seem to lack the acceleration coming out of turns at Iowa. It showed in his qualifying lap especially. Smith and the No. 71 car lost more than a second to the top cars on Saturday. Practice was a little faster as Smith only dropped 0.707 seconds off the pace. He has fared well on tracks that appear to run like Iowa. Then again, those repaved segments are causing their fair share of havoc. Place differential is moderate for Smith because he starts 26th and no one is truly sure on the attrition rates for Sunday evening.
--Chris Wassel - RotoBallerSource: NASCAR.com
2 days agoJohn Hunter Nemechek and the Legacy Motor Club car kept losing tenths of a second at every repaved turn on Saturday. It was not a surprise he qualified 34th for Sunday's Iowa Corn 350. Nemechek's No. 42 car was 1.544 seconds off from Kyle Larson in qualifying. Nemechek was a hair faster in practice as he broke the 134 mph barrier. However, he was 32nd in practice. Worse, his teammate Erik Jones was dead last in the 50-minute session. Both cars seem to be having several handling issues not related to the tires. Since Kansas, Nemechek has finished outside the Top 20 in four straight races.
--Chris Wassel - RotoBallerSource: NASCAR.com
2 days agoDaniel Hemric had some issues with his Kaulig Racing Chevy on Saturday. The No. 31 car qualified 30th for the Iowa Corn 350 on Sunday evening. Furthermore, Hemric has qualified 24th or worse in five consecutive races now. Even place differential potential may be questionable at this point. After all, with some of the well documented Goodyear issues, it remains to be seen what kind of field attrition will occur. Hemric was 1.248 seconds off the Kyle Larson qualifying time. Worse, he was 34th in practice turning in laps over 24 seconds. That is an ominous sign for Sunday evening.
--Chris Wassel - RotoBallerSource: NASCAR.com
2 days agoKaz Grala was assumed to be in the back at Iowa. However, the Rick Ware Racing driver will start 28th for the Iowa Corn 350. The Iowa track has not been raced on in five years by anyone from NASCAR and that was at the Xfinity level. Anyway, Grala did move up six spots at Dover. Dover and even Phoenix have some similarities to the Iowa track (0.875 miles). The repaved sections make guessing place differential more dicey for the Ford car and Grala, however. He may slide back on Sunday later in the race as track conditions cool.
--Chris Wassel - RotoBallerSource: NASCAR.com
2 days agoA.J. Allmendinger qualified 18th on Sunday for the Iowa Corn 350. With tires a bit of an issue, Allmendinger and his Kaulig Racing Chevy could be a bit of a factor. The No. 16 car was not the fastest (23.5 to 23.6 seconds in practice) but as this race goes on, Allmendinger has a chance to make an impact. Watching for tire wear and blowouts will be critical in Iowa. Due to a number of incidents, it only takes one tire blowout to derail an evening. Cooler track conditions should benefit Allmendinger as well as he again starts from the middle of the pack.
--Chris Wassel - RotoBallerSource: NASCAR.com
2 days agoRyan Preece has had a miserable 2024 season to date and it seems likely that his future in the NASCAR Cup Series is in doubt since Stewart-Haas Racing is shutting down and Preece has been kept out of SHR's setup notes sessions this year. That could mean that Preece will be unusually motivated to prove his mettle in the Cup Series for the rest of the season, but with no laps led and only a single top-10 finish this year, it's hard to expect Preece to contend anywhere. However, Iowa could be an exception, as Preece won his first race in the NASCAR Xfinity Series from the pole there in 2017. Given his vast modified experience, he tends to run much better on short tracks than any other track type, but the fact that he only qualified 29th behind all of his teammates probably means he won't contend.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
2 days agoBrad Keselowski qualified fifth for tonight's Iowa Corn 350 and enters as one of the prerace favorites. Although you can't really predict this race based on past results since the track was resurfaced, Keselowski has proven to be a master of the track in the Xfinity Series with three wins and 332 laps led and he's tended to have many of his best races in recent years at similar tracks and/or tracks with abrasive surfaces such as Bristol, Richmond, and Darlington. Couple that with his recent hot streak where he has had five top-three finishes in the last eight races and it's very easy to foresee Keselowski being a favorite to win tonight. The one concern is that he has run very consistently this season but not led many laps, which is usually necessary to win, but there's a strong chance he'll lead more than usual tonight.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
2 days agoAustin Dillon has had a marginal uptick in performance since his stalwart crew chief, Justin Alexander, returned, but he's still having one of his worst seasons and is the fifth-slowest driver in the NASCAR Cup Series this year with a speed percentile of 27.56. This weekend at Iowa, he qualified dead last for Sunday night's Iowa Corn 350 race. Dillon has had a lot of success at Iowa in the past, with a win from pole and 314 laps led in the Craftsman Truck Series and a pole and 376 laps led in the Xfinity Series, but those races were over a decade ago with an entirely different track surface, so they probably won't be very predictive of tonight's event. Although Alexander got Dillon a couple of top 10s recently, his speed still hasn't increased much except for Gateway, and that was mostly due to strategy. Dillon is unlikely to finish well unless Alexander delivers another strategic miracle, although his Place Differential upside makes Austin one of the chalk DFS plays for Sunday night.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
2 days agoDespite Austin Cindric's surprise win at Gateway two weeks ago, it seems unlikely that he will be a significant contender in tonight's race at Iowa Speedway. Although Cindric has more experience than many other drivers at Iowa, he has never finished better than 10th in the Xfinity Series or eighth in the Craftsman Truck Series. Although Cindric did win the pole for his first Xfinity Series race in 2018 and led the first 58 laps there, he never again led there after losing the lead in that race. On top of that, Cindric qualified just 21st, which is considerably worse than he has qualified in most other races this season. He tends to usually finish worse than he starts. He also tends to run worse on short tracks than on most other track types. When considering all of these factors, fantasy players should stay away from Cindric.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
2 days agoHarrison Burton qualified 25th for this evening's inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race at Iowa. He started one Iowa race for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Xfinity Series and finished fourth, but was no match for his teammate, Christopher Bell, who won that race. Despite that performance and two top fives in the Craftsman Truck Series, it seems unlikely Burton will be very competitive since he has neither scored a top-10 finish nor led a lap on a short track. Burton has been quite slow in general this year with a speed percentile of 26.07, but he has been even slower on short tracks with a speed percentile of 17.54, which ranks fourth-worst among full-timers in the NASCAR Cup Series. He may perform a little better than on some of the other short tracks because the veterans have less experience there, but he won't threaten for a top ten.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
2 days agoJosh Berry had the second-best qualifying run of his career at Iowa Speedway thyis weekend and will be starting third for the Iowa Corn 350. Although he had not started a race at Iowa since 2016, he still has less of an advantage than he usually does as a rookie driver because most of the current NASCAR Cup Series drivers do not have a great deal of experience at the track either. While Berry has had a mediocre season to date, he has been particularly strong on short tracks, where he has posted a speed percentile of 80.78 this year, which ranks fifth in the Cup Series. When considering his speed on short tracks in general and the fact that he has less of a disadvantage in experience against the rest of the field, Berry may be poised for one of his best runs of the season.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
7 days agoKyle Larson grabbed his third win of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season at Sonoma Raceway on Sunday afternoon, as the Hendrick Motorsports driver got his second career win at the track after leading 19 of the 110 laps. Larson had the best car all day, as he ranked fastest in Green Flag Speed and had the best Average Running Position as well. Looking at the points standings, Larson is now back atop there, as Denny Hamlin (who was the leader one week ago) suffered a blown engine at Sonoma. What's most impressive is that Larson is leading the points despite having one less start than every other full-time driver in the series. His current lead is 14 points over his teammate, Chase Elliott.
--Jordan McAbeeSource: ESPN
7 days agoKyle Busch got Ross Chastain'd at Sonoma on Sunday. On the final lap of the Toyota/Save Mart 350, Busch was running inside of the top five when a hard-charging Ross Chastain was behind him. Chastain ended up going into the corner a little too fast and got into Busch, spinning out the No. 8 Chevrolet in the process. Chastain went on to finish fifth while Busch was relegated to a 12th-place finish after the incident. After the race, the Richard Childress Racing driver stated, "A couple of guys there at the end of the race had better tires than we did but we were going to have a good day. Unfortunately, one of those guys got into us on the last lap and ruined our day. It's frustrating to not get the finish that we deserved." This could have Playoff implications as well, as Busch effectively lost seven points on that final lap at Sonoma, and he is now eight points back from the bubble for the postseason.
--Jordan McAbeeSource: On3
7 days agoAfter a string of mediocre runs due to curiously slow cars, Ross Chastain returned to form and finished fifth at Sonoma, scoring his best career finish at the track and his first top-five since Las Vegas. Chastain was consistently fast, particularly at the end of Stage 2 when he passed Tyler Reddick, and he was one of the few drivers who could hang with Kyle Larson as they moved through the field together. However, the race didn't come without controversy, as Chastain broke loose and spun out Kyle Busch on the last lap, which relegated Busch to a 12th-place finish. Unlike previous seasons, Chastain's kept it relatively clean probably at the expense of speed, but he isn't locked into the Playoffs. If he has many incidents over the summer like he did in previous years, he could still miss the postseason.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
7 days agoAJ Allmendinger finished sixth in yesterday's race at Sonoma, matching his best finish at the track from last year and also matching the Daytona 500 and COTA for his best finishes this year. However, his performance yesterday was stronger than any of those other races, as he scored a driver rating of 108.3, his highest since his win at the Charlotte Roval last year. Allmendinger's pass differential of 24 was better than any of those other races as well. He pitted during the Stage 1 caution a few laps later than several of the other contenders, which allowed him to make his final pit stop several laps later than many others, giving him the lead for three laps and ensuring he wouldn't have to save fuel like Chris Buescher and Martin Truex Jr. Although Allmendinger didn't factor for the win, his strategy and racecraft were definitely impressive.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
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