March 29, 2024

Blaney best on long, short runs to Iowa victory

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Long runs and short runs were under the command of Ryan Blaney in a dominating performance on his run to victory lane Saturday at Iowa Speedway.

Blaney, who led a track record 252 laps, in an extended U.S. Cellular 250 posted his first NASCAR Xfinity Series win in 2015. After running well under green flights for long runs for most of the race at Newton, Blaney survived late-race chaos with short runs following six cautions in the final 50 laps of the 260-lap event.

“It’s not ideal at all,” Blaney said of four cautions in the final 20 laps. “You have a great car and those late cautions are just chances to give it away.

“But it always happens at Iowa. I won a truck race here a couple of years ago on restarts. Iowa is just a fun place to race, and we’ve always had good runs here. And they have one of the coolest trophies. I wanted another fuel pump trophy.”

Blaney said at Iowa Speedway races, there’s the long run at the beginning of the races, then it seems there’s always three or four cautions late.

“You have to make sure your car is good in short runs. This car was pretty good tonight at both the long runs and short runs. We were able to maintain for a lap and put distance on the rest of the field,” he said.

Blaney came into the Xfinity Series’ second stop at Iowa of the season with the bad taste of losing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway the week before. Blaney appeared to be on the verge of winning at the Brickyard when Kyle Busch won on a last-lap pass.

Blaney did not give ground Saturday, and on the rare occasion he did, Blaney charged right back to the front of the pack.

At the start of the race, Blaney pushed past pole-winner Daniel Suarez and stayed out front. When there was a question if he had enough fuel to finish the race under green, a caution came out on Lap 203, giving Blaney an opportunity for a fuel-and-tire pit stop.

Blaney had to withstand four restarts down the stretch to ward off challenges by 2014 Xfinity Series champion Chase Elliott, current points leader Chris Buescher, who had won at Iowa in May, Brendan Gaughan and Darrell Wallace Jr.

“That was tough.You have to stay focused on the task at hand and hit your marks like you did all night putting you in that position.” Blaney said.

“I didn’t know if it was going to play out good. I knew we had a lot of left-rear damage, it was smoking in the car a lot. I can’t thank everybody on this Discount Tire Ford Mustang. They put together a flawless car.”

Blaney’s No. 22 car sustained the damage when Gaughan’s No. 62 car got into Blaney’s car on the first green-white-checkered attempt. Gaughan made the correction to save his own car and Blaney kept driving.

“It was just two guys trying to go for a win. Brendan and I always race good together. People want to see good hard racing and we gave them that tonight. Iowa has an awesome crowd and I thank the fans for staying around to the end.”

Blaney finally won on the second attempt at a green-white-checkered finish. Regan Smith finished second followed by Brian Scott, Ty Dillon and Gaughan. Suarez and Erik Jones battled through to end up at sixth and seventh, respectively.

“I was happy with my race car from the start,” Smith said after the race. “Our pit crew were rock stars tonight as they allowed me to pick up positions. In the last two restarts, I went out and took a shot at the No. 22, but I just couldn’t get to him.”

Scott said he was pleased to finish third at Iowa in a car his team has struggled with to get the speed to contend.

“I’m proud of our guys. Our pit crew worked really hard tonight and I made up track position because of their work,” Scott said. “We just couldn’t get the car balanced and get the speed we needed. In the craziness we had at the end, I had good lines to miss wrecks and have a good finish. Tonight, we identify a lot of areas to get better in.”

Erik Jones had to start from the rear in a car teammate Drew Herring posted the fifth-fastest qualifying lap in because Jones flew to Iowa from competing in the NASCAR Truck Series race at Pocono Saturday afternoon. Jones moved through the field and survived a pit road accident with Darrell Wallace Jr. for a top-10 finish.

Suarez came back from going a lap down when he had to pit for a flat tire. It took him 100 laps to regain the lap and finish strong.

Buescher still leads the tight points race after settling for 13th Saturday. Elliott gained five points by running ninth. Buescher has 682 points with Elliott at 662 and Dillon one point back of him.

Elliott and Brandon Jones crashed coming down the front stretch with 21 laps left

It was the third straight August Xfinity Series win at Iowa Speedway for the No. 22 Team Penske Ford. Brad Keselowski raced to Casey’s General Stores Victory Lane in 2013 and 2014.

The other story of the 2015 U.S. Cellular 250 Saturday was the final NASCAR start for veteran driver Kenny Wallace. Wallace, 51, has an Xfinity Series record 547 starts in his 905 total race starts in NASCAR competition.

Kenny Wallace started in seventh and ran as high as 10th in the race until two mishaps knocked him out of the top 10. He finished 15th at Iowa Speedway’s 2015 season finale on a track designed by his older brother Rusty Wallace.

“Obviously, I’m not going to be upset over a hard-earned, 15th-place finish,” Wallace said. “You know, it was just a deal where it looked like we were going to close in on a good finish, but as normal short track racing, the horns came out at the very end.”

The NASCAR Xfinity Series heads to Watkins Glen Saturday.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535 or jsheets@newtondailynews.com