1 day 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
1 day 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
1 day 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
1 day 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
1 day 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
1 day 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
6 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
6 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
7 days agoCam Waters made his NASCAR Cup Series debut on Sunday at Sonoma. Although he was fresh off of winning the last Supercars race at Wanneroo Raceway last month and he also made a few starts in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series this year (which gave him a bit more experience than his fellow Supercars debutant Will Brown), Waters never really got a chance to compete, as he was taken out in the multi-car crash triggered when Josh Berry spun Christopher Bell into William Byron as he was attempting to re-enter the track. This crash broke Waters' suspension, and he eventually finished 35th. Although he had a fairly anonymous run even before his crash, he at least was not as embarrassing on track as Brown was.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
7 days agoMichael McDowell made a surprise charge to finish second on Sunday, giving him his best finish both at Sonoma and this year. His finish was improbable, as he was caught up in a crash in the grass with Austin Cindric and Noah Gragson, but McDowell's strategy was on point, while many other contenders made their final pit stops too early, forcing Chris Buescher to slow down to save fuel and causing Martin Truex Jr. to run out of fuel on the last lap, which elevated McDowell from fourth to second in the last five laps. However, his playoff chances are significantly worse than they were last year because the Indianapolis Road Course race he dominated last year was replaced by the oval, and the Watkins Glen race is now in the playoffs, which leaves Chicago and Daytona as his only realistic possibilities for regular-season wins, and those are both unlikely.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
7 days agoDenny Hamlin had a catastrophic engine failure while crossing the start-finish line to complete Lap 2 in Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma. The engine failure came without warning, snapped a five-race top-five streak for Hamlin, and cost him the points lead to eventual race winner Kyle Larson. Hamlin was relegated to a 38th-place finish, the first time he finished last in a race since last year's Charlotte Roval race, although he also finished last in the previous Sonoma race after a crash. Clearly road courses are Hamlin's biggest Achilles heel right now, as his second-place result at Watkins Glen last year has been his only top-10 road-course finish with the Next Gen car. With this year's playoffs having two road courses for the first time, Hamlin will need to work on this if he wants to finally win his first NASCAR Cup Series championship.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
7 days agoAlthough Christopher Bell was mostly a non-factor at Sonoma, he earned a quiet 10th-place finish and suffered less bad luck than any of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates. This is not to say he had no bad luck, though, as Josh Berry spun him out on Lap 35 while trying to recover from sliding off the track. This triggered a domino effect that took out five other cars, but Bell was not significantly damaged. He worked his way up to 11th in the closing laps before being gifted a top-10 finish on the last lap when Kyle Busch got spun out by Ross Chastain, and Martin Truex Jr. ran out of fuel. This partially makes up for Bell's bad luck last week at Gateway and continues his current run of consistency, which has caused him to rise from 17th to ninth in the points standings in the last five races.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
7
days
agoOn
Sunday
afternoon,
Tyler
Reddick
finished
eighth
in
the
Toyota/Save
Mart
350
at
Sonoma
Raceway.
Overall,
Sunday
was
a
decent
day
for
Reddick
as
he
earned
his
10th
top-10
of
the
season,
which
is
the
most
of
any
driver
in
the
Cup
Series.
Unfortunately
for
the
23XI
star,
read more...
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