After a twisted trek in the foothills of Sears Point last week, the stars of the NASCAR Cup Series storm their way to the heart of the Hawkeye State for the first time.
The Toyota/Save Mart 350k at Sonoma Raceway experienced its fair share of cautions as the yellow fell a shocking eight times in the first 60 laps of the race for incidents like Denny Hamlin’s expiring engine on lap 3 and two multi-car wrecks in the dreaded Esses.
On lap 35, the tempers in the field reached a fever pitch when Erik Jones and Josh Berry made contact on the entry to turn 11, sending Berry careening into a slew of drivers and causing a seven-car pileup.
Action on the track meant plenty of action on pit road as well. Yellow flags present a great opportunity for the crew chiefs and engineers to bust out their calculators to see how long they can make it on the next tank of gas.
Several teams found these cautions advantageous, including former champions Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch since the additional stops cycled them to the front while the drivers up front opted for a more aggressive strategy that allowed their drivers to push their cars to the limit before and after their final stops.
Chief among them was Kyle Larson. The 2021 Sonoma winner ripped through the pack to take the lead on lap 71 when the Truex-Busch group pitted and extended his gap while the others pedaled their cars to save fuel.
When Larson made his final stop, he re-entered the track in 8th, 11 seconds behind Truex and race leader Chris Buescher, and he made a beeline for the top-2, flying by Busch and the others on the old tires.
Truex may as well have imprinted the Toyota logo on his front end into the rear of Buescher’s struggling Ford as the aging tires sizzled from the intense heat of the Sun above and the freshly-repaved asphalt beneath them.
The enigmatic veteran felt the heat from Larson’s surging Valvoline Chevy and made a move past Buescher with 10 laps to go with Larson in tow.
It then became a battle between the champions with Truex’s car slipping on the exit of turn 4a, giving Larson a lane going into turn 7a to make the decisive maneuver on the inside.
Putting the waiver drama from the week in the rearview, the 2021 champion rolled to his third win of the season with Truex seemingly close by…until Clint Bowyer noticed his former teammate’s Bass Pro Shops Camry tiptoeing up the hill to the finish line, no doubt empty from running more than 40 laps on one tank.
Larson’s win vaulted him back to the top spot in the points standings while a second-place run for Michael McDowell propped him back up into the thick of the points battle approaching the Playoff Bubble.
With 10 races remaining until the Playoffs begin, the NASCAR silly season begins to boil over, and one key figure in all of this has just announced an end to his racing days.
Martin Truex Jr. came forward this Friday to let the world know his intentions to retire from full-time Cup racing at the end of the 2024 Cup Series season, relinquishing the reigns of the #19 Toyota after six seasons with current team owner Joe Gibbs.
More will be discussed about Truex’s legacy and career-defining moments in the months to come, but in the spirit of the 2017 Cup champ, I’m not going to linger on it and move on.
Naturally, a new network takes over for FOX for the remainder of the season with the folks at NBC hosting NASCAR Cup Series racing for the remainder of 2024, starting with this week’s race in Iowa.
The Track
Though many drivers on its current roster have visited the pride of Newton, Iowa, this will be the first time Cup cars hit the 0.875-mile facility for a sanctioned race.
Track owner US Motorsport Entertainment Corporation broke ground on Iowa Speedway in June 2005 before opening the doors to the track for its first laps of competition in September the following year.
With the sale of the track to NASCAR in 2013, most races run at the circuit remained until 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic put the track’s future in jeopardy, but after hosting an ARCA race in 2021, IndyCar returned to Iowa in 2022 for a doubleheader that pointed the facility in the right direction.
Now, Iowa Speedway looks to have a brighter future than when it was built as it hosts its first tripleheader NASCAR weekend with Cup and Xfinity bringing along ARCA on their trip to Newton this weekend.
NASCAR legend Rusty Wallace helped design the D-shaped oval, Iowa becomes the first new short track added to the Cup Series schedule since the 1970s. From there, the track hosted ARCA, Xfinity Series, Truck Series, and IndyCar events over its short, complicated history.
Rounding turn 4, drivers enter the curved front straight to start their lap before descending into turns 1 & 2. Going from the front straight’s 10° of banking to the turn 1’s 12° of banking on the bottom offers a unique challenge to drivers as the banking increases to 14° by the wall.
This should open up opportunities for drivers to find different lines to pass cars throughout the day.
But. NASCAR had to go and ruin that.
Until a few weeks ago, a majority of the NASCAR community was under the impression that the Iowa Corn 350 would run on the untouched asphalt from the track’s initial construction.
NASCAR — in its infinite wisdom — decided to buck that trend by paving the bottom two lanes in the turns, making the top grooves of the track harder to parse.
This eliminates the potential for line diversity and cheapens the overall product, similar to what is seen at the widely-maligned Texas Motor Speedway.
Worst of all, this takes place on the bottom two lanes of all four turns, giving the track a visually-distinct look for its inaugural race weekend. If you’d like to read more about the interesting process that went into halfway-repaving Iowa Speedway, here’s Jeff Gluck’s article from The Athletic earlier this week.
The tattered, patchwork surface produced a slew of tire issues in Cup Series practice with five drivers losing a tire with every manufacturer affected. Think back to the 2022 Bristol night race, and that might be something we all need to mentally prepare our eyes to see.
Suffice to say, this race is a true wild card for NASCAR. A “new” track surface on a “new” track during one of the hottest days of the year leads one to think that the racing will be ridiculous, but with the more durable, planted NextGen car, it’s really anyone’s guess how it’ll handle the Crown of Corn.
Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 will be broken up into three stages, ending on laps 70-210-350. As mentioned earlier, NBC’s team will broadcast the race from USA Network starting at 7pm Eastern time.
Since there aren’t any statistics for me to pour over and analyze, I’ll brief you on the forecast before whipping straight over to the odds.
Warm, partly cloudy skies are projected to greet fans as they’ll be treated to a race into the sunset before phasing into the familiar night race glow of ruby red brake rotors and chrome-tinged paint schemes.
When the green flag falls, the temperature appears to hover around 90°F, slipping into the mid-70s by the time the checkered flag waves for the race winner.
I normally try not to use this platform to influence my audience, but on a personal note, please wear sun protection if you plan to attend this weekend’s racing. The UV index for race day is 11; that’s something you won’t want to mess with.
Keep yourselves hydrated, and if you start feeling unwell, it’s okay to leave the race to collect yourself or get help from the medical team at the track. They are there to help you.
With that taken care of, it’s time to scour and prod the favorites for the inaugural Iowa Corn 350 with odds provided by the fine folks at DraftKings.
The Odds
Despite a dominant performance where the #20 DeWalt Camry looked to be the best car at Gateway, Christopher Bell (+400) suffered from an ailing engine and lost out on a second straight victory.
The Oklahoman notched his first win of the year at Phoenix, a track with similar characteristics to Iowa, but he was especially great here in Xfinity Series competition, finishing no worse than second in his last four races. Having participated in the recent tire test at the track, Bell should have a leg up on the competition on Sunday.
Next up is last week’s winner Kyle Larson (+550). Rick Hendrick’s hired gun blasted through the field on the final run in Sonoma, blowing away his competition, and popping back into the points lead.
Three wins ties Larson with Denny Hamlin and teammate William Byron for the series lead in victories; like Bell, Larson participated in that Iowa test. The last thing any team should want is to give Kyle Larson and Cliff Daniels an inherent advantage going into a race weekend. Keep your eyes peeled for the #5 car on Sunday.
Speaking of Hamlin (+700), the Joe Gibbs Racing workhorse took his Camry back to the stall after just two completed laps in Sonoma, giving him more time to focus in on the fourth short track race of the year.
This weekend shapes up well for the long-tenured driver out of Virginia, having claimed all three of his wins this season on tracks 1 mile or smaller in length (Bristol, Richmond, Dover.) We know Hamlin is great at reading data, so with Bell’s research on the table, expect the #11 to dial their car in by the time the sun sets.
As for winless drivers still seeking their first 2024 victory, my eyes are on Joey Logano and Ross Chastain.
Logano (+850) completed over 800 laps at the North Wilkesboro repave test, leading to his curb-stomping of the series’ stars in the All-Star Race. Banked similarly to Wilkesboro, Iowa presents an opportunity for Logano to wash away his problem-riddled day in northern California.
On the opposite end of the winless boat is Ross Chastain (+2200). The Trackhouse Racing driver has yet to visit victory lane since last year’s Phoenix finale, and at a track he’s won at before in the Truck Series, Iowa might welcome a different kind of farmer that’s known to celebrate his wins and his produce in a big way.
Writer’s Pick
Last week’s writer’s pick was Martin Truex Jr.
I’m sorry, but I still can’t believe that I picked drivers, two weeks in a row, that ran out of gas on the last lap.
I hope this same fate does not befall my pick for Iowa: Brad Keselowski (+1200). The RFK owner-driver represented Ford for Iowa’s tire test last month, and on top of his insane record at the track in the Xfinity Series, it’s surprising to say the least to see him so far down the oddsmakers’ list.
Keselowski won three times in the Iowa cornfields, first in 2009 with JR Motorsports and two more in 2013 and 2014 with Team Penske. Wanting to make a statement that Darlington was not a fluke, the 2012 champion might just make his way through the pack and etch his name into the championship discussion.
(Top Photo Credit: Iowa Speedway’s website)
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