July 08, 2025

NASCAR Nationwide Series DuPont Pioneer 250 – June 8

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NASCAR Nationwide Series driver Austin Dillon makes a pit stop during the 2011 DuPont Pioneer 250. Dillon, the grandson of owner Richard Childress, finished fourth in the race last season and third overall in points. He will return to Newton for both Nationwide Series dates this season.

For the past two years, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. has turned “America’s Place to Race” into “Ricky’s Place to Race” during Iowa Speedway’s opening weekend.

Known as the John Deere Dealers 250 in its inception, the DuPont Pioneer 250 has kicked off the racing season in Newton for the past two years. Regardless of the name, Stenhouse earned victories in each of those races.

There will be plenty of change in 2013, however, as not only will the race weekend move to June, but Stenhouse will be gone, leaving an open field of competition. Between the mix of experience drivers and young up-and-comers, it will be anyone’s race when the green flag drops.

In 2011, Stenhouse earned his first career victory in the John Deere Dealers 250, ending a 10-race streak of Sprint Cup Series regulars winning races while getting seat time in the Nationwide Series. Although driver Reed Sorensen led a race-high 77 laps, Stenhouse’s 41 proved to be enough to earn the checkered flag.

Things were a bit easier for Stenhouse in 2012, when he led 209 of the race’s 250 laps to establish his pure dominance of the track and make his way into the young track’s folklore. Although he was understandably silent about it, much of Stenhouse’s success at the track can be attributed to his mastering of the bumps near Turns 1 and 2.

This season’s Nationwide Series schedule appears to be taking a similar mold to 2011’s, as Sprint Cup regular Kyle Busch has won six of the 10 races. While it remains to be seen whether Busch will make a trip to Iowa this year after winning the U.S. Cellular 250 in 2010, Kyle’s brother Kurt made the first of his two appearances in Newton for last year’s DuPont Pioneer 250.

With such an open field heading into the race, the prospect of another run like Stenhouse’s is an exciting storyline. Considering his ties with Roush Fenway racing, Stenhouse’s skill is hardly ever questioned. However, he did lack the victories needed to catch the national eye until he started piling them up at Iowa Speedway. Just like it did for him, the DuPont Pioneer 250 is capable of launching any regular driver from series dwellar to next big thing in a matter of one season.

The race weekend will begin on Friday, June 7 at 8 p.m. with the K&N Pro Series Eas-West Challenge, a crossover event that offers plenty of young talent such as Grimes native Brett Moffitt. Green flag for the DuPont Pioneer 250 will drop at 7 p.m. on Saturday, June 8.