Late pass sends McReynolds to win in Casey's 150

Brandon McReynolds knew he had it in him. He just didn’t know why he hadn’t won a race since May 4, 2012.

The streak finally ended at Iowa Speedway on Saturday during the NASCAR K&N Pro Series Casey’s General Stores 150 when McReynolds made a late pass of William Byron after a caution and won the race under red flag.

The 23-year-old McReynolds last won at Talledega Superspeedway a little more than three years ago. But he’s thankful that his team and owner never gave up on him.

“I just thank Bill for not firing me,” McReynolds said. “All that pressure, time, bad luck and me making mistakes, it led up tonight. It’s really fitting.

“I have been in a lot of these situations. I have lost a lot more of these kind of races and maybe we have turned the corner a little bit.”

It was the first NASCAR win of McReynolds’ career. And the son of NASCAR on FOX announcer Larry McReynolds did it in 34 career starts.

“All along, I knew I could drive. I am just glad everyone at the NAPA team continued to believe in me,” Brandon McReynolds said. “They could have easily gotten rid of me. It’s a huge confidence builder. And the win was a long time coming.”

For the 17-year-old Byron, it was an unfortunate ending to an otherwise dominant night. Byron won the pole and led 140 laps. It was his race to win until a fourth caution came at lap 142 because Rico Abreu crashed into the wall at turn 4.

Byron, who gets credit for the K&N Pro Series East win, looked like he had the fastest car but blamed his inability to drive through lap traffic as the biggest reason why he couldn’t pull out the win.

“It’s disappointing to come home second, but I am just glad to be here to be honest,” Byron said. “My car was tight in traffic so that hurt me. I don’t know if he would have caught us without the caution, but that’s coulda, shoulda, woulda stuff. You never know. I think we could have held him off though.”

In four starts this season, Byron has four top-10 finishes and three top-fives. The rest of the top-five included Ronnie Bassett, Jesse Little and Christopher Bell. JJ Haley, Noag Gragson, Scott Heckert, Kyle Benjamin and Austin Hill rounded out the top 10.

It was the fourth top-10 finish of the season for Hill and the third for Benjamin.

Jesse Little sports “Get to Know Newton logo on hood of car

Little had the “Get to Know Newton” logo on the hood of his car for Saturday’s K&N Pro Series race. He said the relationship with Newton came about because his father and city of Newton employee Craig Armstrong are friends.

“I really enjoy coming to this town and racing," Little said. "I have been here six times now and it is one of my favorite places to race at on the circuit. And we tend to do well here so that’s an added bonus.”

Drew Herring wins XFinity pole, won’t race Sunday

Drew Herring won the pole for Sunday’s NASCAR XFinity 3M 250 but won’t be in the car tomorrow because he was a back-up driver for Erik Jones. Jones will drive the car Sunday.

"As cruel as it may be it's a lot better than sitting on the couch,” Herring said.