Who… should you be talking about after the race?
Between having no fewer than 80 family members and friends at the track to watch him race and not having a win yet in 2024, Ryan Blaney was motivated on Sunday at Iowa Speedway. Blaney led a career-high 201 laps on the way to winning the Iowa Corn 350 over William Byron. It was the 11th win of the 2023 champion’s Cup career.
By winning the inaugural Cup race at Iowa, Blaney became the first driver to win in all three national series at the track. Blaney also got the first NASCAR national series win of his career at Iowa, finding victory lane in the Craftsman Truck Series at just 18 in 2012.
After Saturday’s Xfinity Series race, tires were at the forefront of the conversation going into Sunday’s Cup race, but while they played a supporting role, they weren’t the focus. Blaney won with just two fresh Goodyears on his final stop and Byron still couldn’t run him down. Some divers did struggle with cut tires, but they didn’t dictate the race — Blaney did that on his own.
And don’t forget Josh Berry. Berry led a career-high 32 laps on Sunday and had the fastest car in the field mid-race. While Berry didn’t have enough speed to challenge Blaney for the win, he’s far from alone in that regard. It’s easy to forget that Berry is still a rookie in the Cup Series. He had a couple of Xfinity starts under his belt at Iowa with one top 10.
Berry and his team have come out swinging since Stewart-Haas Racing announced its closure after the 2024 season. They’re racing for jobs but look far from defeated.
What… is the big question leaving this race in the rearview?
With Martin Truex Jr. announcing his retirement at season’s end and the closure of Stewart-Haas Racing on the horizon, Silly Season is underway in a big way. But while the question of the moment is who will fill Truex’s seat in the No. 19, the real question is just how crazy will Silly Season get in 2024?
NASCAR and team owners remain at an impasse on a future charter agreement, and those four SHR charters still hang in the balance. While at least three of them look to be spoken for if an agreement is reached between teams and NASCAR, that means three teams expanding to what could be a new limit of three cars. There will be four seats open from the SHR closure, but that doesn’t mean its four current drivers slot into…
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