K&N Pro Series drivers ready for East-West showdown

NASCAR K&N Pro Series driver Julia Landauer has a college degree from Stanford University. She is smart enough to know that she is no longer in the running for a points championship this season.

But that doesn’t mean Landauer has packed it in. The 25-year-old West Series driver still plans on coming to Iowa Speedway this weekend with the hopes of winning the Casey’s General Stores 150 and representing her series in the East-West combination race.

“I don’t really have a chance to win the series title right now, but all the drivers go out every week trying to win races,” Landauer said. “The East and West is a rivalry. We both want our side to win the race.”

Iowa Speedway drops the green flag for the NASCAR K&N Pro Series Casey’s General Stores 150 at 7 p.m. Friday.

Landauer enters Friday’s K&N Pro Series race sitting in 11th in the West team standings. She trails leader Todd Gilliland by 97 points. Landauer has 257 points and has finished in the top 10 in four of the eight races.

Last year, Landauer finished fourth in the overall standings and finished in the top 10 in all but one of her 14 starts during her first full season in the series.

The NASCAR Next driver has only raced at Iowa Speedway one other time. She finished eighth among West drivers last year despite not having an official qualifying time after the oil pressure belt in her No. 88 Ford Performance Ford.

“I’ve described this race as a bit of a redemption type deal,” Landauer said. “The drivers in the West don’t get to drive on many tracks as big as Iowa. It’s exciting. I am looking forward to it.”

Landauer’s excitement also comes with some apprehension. Success at Iowa Speedway often comes down to qualifying, which Landauer admits is not her team’s strength.

“They have changed our qualifying format,” Landauer said. “I’m nervous. I am looking forward to the challenge, but it’s just not something we have been that good at this year.”

Don’t let Landauer’s degree from Stanford fool you. She’s a race car driver. She started racing go carts when she was 10, and she won her first championship in her early teens.

Unlike some of the other top drivers in the series, Landauer didn’t come from a racing family. She doesn’t have the financial pockets that some of the other teams have. That’s part of the reason she decided to get a college degree.

“I knew early on that I wanted to go into racing,” said Landauer, who was once a contestant on the ‘Survivor: Caramoan.’ “I had to have a strategic decision so I went to Stanford to become more business savvy. But the plan the whole time was to go into racing.”

Landauer and the rest of the field will most likely be chasing Gilliland, Harrison Burton, Chris Eggleston, Chase Purdy, Ronnie Bassett Jr. and Ben Kennedy on Friday. Michael Self and Vinnie Miller, who both just claimed top-five finishes in the ARCA race at Iowa earlier this month, also are in the field.

Gilliland is one of a few drivers who competes in both the East and West full time. He leads the East standings by 10 points over Eggleston and trails Burton in the West by 14.

Gilliland has won four of the eight races on the West side and two of the nine races in the East series. In total, he has 12 top-five finishes and 17 top-10 tallies. He is coming off a win last week out East as he defeated Purdy in late two-car battle to the finish line.

Eggleston has drove into Victory Lane three times in the West series. He eight top-10 finishes in eight races and seven top-five finishes.

Burton, the 15-year-old son of former NASCAR Monster Energy Series driver Jeff Burton, has four wins in his nine starts out East. He has been in the top five in all but one race and has won three of the last five races.

Burton, another NASCAR Next driver, and Gilliland has made the East points championship run as a two-team race. Purdy is sitting third but is 38 points back of Gilliland. Bassett Jr., who has one win this season, is fourth and Ruben Garcia Jr. rounds out the top five.

Kennedy has had success at Iowa before. He’s racing a part-time NASCAR Xfinity Series this season but will be in a K&N car at Iowa on Friday for Kevin Manion Motorsports, who is making their debut in the series.

Kennedy will drive the No. 1 Toyota with sponsorship from Menards in the annual combination race

KMM is led by Kevin “Bono” Manion, a former NASCAR crew chief. As a part-time team owner in NASCAR’s Whelen Modified Tour and other regional series, Manion scored nine victories and 10 poles while fielding cars for the likes of Ryan Newman, Kyle Larson and Ryan Preece.

“Our goal is to build something beyond a one-off race,” Manion said. “We want to create an environment that teaches and develops young talent to have goals of competing at racing’s highest levels. Iowa’s a great spot to start and Ben is a winning driver in the K&N East.”

Kennedy is a two-time race winner in the series.

Two other drivers in the Casey’s General Stores 150 who may be familiar to racing fans include Jesse Little and Davenport native Ron Norman.

Landauer hopes to use her experience last week in Loudon, New Hampshire, to benefit her this weekend at Iowa. Landauer completed only 14 laps after her motor overheated.

“The track is really fun,” Landauer said. “Loudon is similar to Iowa, and we have not had too many similar tracks in back-to-back weeks. I think that can benefit all of us.”

Contact Troy Hyde at
641-792-3121 ext. 6536 or thyde@newtondailynews.com