NASCAR Category

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service LOUDON, N.H. – NASCAR Cup Series qualifying was cancelled Saturday afternoon because of inclement weather at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Sunday’s USA Today 301 (2 p.m. ET on USA Network, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) starting lineup will instead be based on a metric including owners points, driver points, last week’s race finishing position and last week’s fastest laps. NASCAR Cup Series championship leader, Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott will start from pole position, alongside reigning series champion, Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney. “To be honest, IRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Gene Haas is turning back the clock to 2008 for the future endeavors of his NASCAR Cup Series operation. With Stewart-Haas Racing closing its doors as we know it at the end of the 2024 Cup Series season, the overarching opinion was that the entire operation was done for, but on Thursday, the future for the team became a bit clearer. Haas, the co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, announced that instead of all four of the team’s Cup charters going up on the market, he would beRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor NEWTON, Iowa – To return to Iowa in the future or not to return, that is the question. Ask any of the drivers after Sunday’s inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race on the 0.875-mile oval, and the answer is an unequivocal “Yes.” Throughout the weekend the grandstands were packed despite the heat and even with the doom and gloom and the unknown of how the partially repaved surface would race, the event delivered an entertaining race. One that will leave Cup Series schedule makers with a bigRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor NEWTON, Iowa – Ryan Blaney had come so close to victory on so many occasions in 2024, only to fall short in the end. On Sunday at Iowa Speedway, it was finally Blaney’s time, scoring the win in Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 ahead of the Hendrick Motorsports duo of William Byron and Chase Elliott. It was a dominant drive from the driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford, who led a race-high 201 laps, winning the first stage and finishing the second stage in theRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor NEWTON, Iowa – For the second day in a row, tires were the talk of the town at Iowa Speedway. After the NASCAR Cup Series had its issues with tire failures in practice on Friday, it was the Xfinity Series turn during Saturday’s HyVee Perks 250. Throughout the day, drivers and teams were riding the ragged edge wondering if they were going to be the next to feel the wrath of the tire gods. When all was said and done, more than an handful of driversRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service NEWTON, Iowa — In a race of tire management and hurt feelings, Sam Mayer held off Riley Herbst in overtime to win Saturday’s Hy-Vee Perks 250 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ return to Iowa Speedway after a four-year hiatus. Mayer’s No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet crossed the finish line 0.146 seconds ahead of the No. 98 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford of Herbst, who felt Mayer had abused him earlier in the race. The victory was Mayer’s second of the season and the sixth of hisRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor NEWTON, Iowa – Kyle Larson will start from pole for Sunday’s sold-out Iowa Corn 350 at Iowa Speedway, turning the fastest lap in a weather-delayed qualifying session on Saturday afternoon. Rolling out as the last car in the field to make a lap on the partially repaved 0.875-mile oval, Larson posted a lap of 23.084 seconds, 136.458 mph, to knock defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney off the top of the board. Larson was one of the first drivers to make laps on the newRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor NEWTON, Iowa – Iowa’s partial repave was the talk of the NASCAR Cup Series garage area coming into Iowa Corn 350 weekend, but after Friday’s lone practice session, tires have become the main concern. By the time all was said and done, more than a handful of drivers had issues with their tires being unable to cope with the mix-and-match between the old and new Iowa pavement. Noah Gragson finished the 63-minute practice session at the top of the board with a lap of 22.828 seconds,Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor NEWTON, Iowa – When you know it’s time, it’s time. And that time has come for Martin Truex, Jr. On Friday at Iowa Speedway, the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series champion announced that the 2024 season would be his last in full-time Cup competition as he’ll hang up the helmet when the checkered flag falls I November. It will bring a 19-year career of racing full-time at NASCAR’s highest level to a close and cement a career that has included marquee wins and championships not only inRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor NEWTON, Iowa – Build it and they will come…. eventually. After nearly two decades in existence, Iowa Speedway finally gets the call for a NASCAR Cup Series date this weekend, marking the latest track to host NASCAR’s premier series. The 0.875-mile oval in Central Iowa, a brainchild of NASCAR Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace, has hosted three of the lower-level NASCAR series – Xfinity, Trucks, and ARCA – over the years, which only amplified the calls for the Cup Series to visit and the fans inRead More