Iowa Speedway welcomed back the NASCAR Xfinity Series with style today (June 15).
Sam Mayer survived a late overtime restart and a day filled with tire wear issues to take his second win of the 2024 Xfinity Series season in the HyVee Perks 250, the series’ first race at Iowa since 2019. Mayer collected the sixth win of his Xfinity Series career.
Mayer beat Riley Herbst to the line by .146 seconds, making the pass on him with seven laps to go. Mayer then defended the lead from Herbst on the final overtime restart.
Herbst was upset with how Mayer raced him throughout the race. Both drivers were around each other all day. Herbst also battled back from damage on the front nose of his car caused by contact with Ross Chastain on pit road during the final round of pit stops.
Corey Heim finished third, matching Sam Hunt Racing’s best-ever result and recording his career-best result. Iowa native Sammy Smith and Sheldon Creed crossed the line fourth and fifth, respectively.
Cole Custer, Matt DiBenedetto with a career-best Xfinity result, Chandler Smith, Chastain and Daniel Dye rounded out the top 10.
Austin Hill and Justin Allgaier lined up on the front row after qualifying was rained out. Shane van Gisbergen moved to the rear from second after having to start in a backup car due to a crash in practice. Allgaier was able to lead from the outside at the start of the race, while Hill settled for second after a brief battle with Creed.
Chandler Smith made his way by Hill and to Allgaier, taking the top spot on lap 15. Smith pulled away from Allgaier, who started to fall back to fifth.
The first caution came out on lap 34 for AJ Allmendinger‘s right front tire going flat out of turn four, destroying the right front of the No. 16 Chevrolet Camaro.
After the first set of Goodyears came off of most of the cars in the field, it became increasingly apparent that tires would play a key factor in the race.
Brandon Jones‘ bad luck this season continued during the first caution as his car started smoking from the exhaust pipes. Jones would join Allmendinger behind the wall with an additional electrical problem.
John Hunter Nemechek stayed out with Jeremy Clements and Ryan Ellis. After Nemechek ran up the race track on the restart in turn one, Clements took the lead on lap 42.
Chandler Smith would return to lead by lap 49, passing Clements on fresher tires. His teammate Creed followed him in second.
The stage would…
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