The NASCAR Cup Series will join the Xfinity Series at Iowa Speedway this weekend. The Truck Series is taking another week off. Iowa Speedway is no stranger to the Truck Series and Xfinity Series, but NASCAR brought the Cup Series cars to the track for the first time last year. The race was dominated by Ryan Blaney, but there were still 17 lead changes, pit strategy came into play (Blaney took two tires to win the race) and the margin of victory was only .716 seconds (Ryan Blaney over William Byron). I expect another fun race in the Heartland Sunday.
Here is the schedule for the on-track activity at Iowa Speedway….
FANTASY STATS FOR IOWA
Iowa Speedway is a .875-mile, short track. The track was designed by Rusty Wallace to race like Richmond Raceway. The Cup Series does not travel to Richmond until mid-August so we will have to use the stats from the race last year in Iowa, the race earlier this season at Phoenix and I will sprinkle in some of the stats from the race at Richmond last year. This should give us an idea of which drivers are good on short flat tracks and have a good chance to finish up front.
Here are the stats from the race at Iowa Speedway last year and the last races at Richmond Raceway and Phoenix Raceway Phoenix Raceway, sorted by Driver Rating…
IOWA PREVIEW
FANTASY LIVE: There are only four races left in the regular season in the Fantasy Live game. One of the races is on the road course at Watkins Glen and another is on the Superspeedway track in Daytona. The race this week in Iowa and the race in two weeks at Richmond are the tracks were you want to use your top drivers. We can get through the race next week at Watkins Glen by using our road courses aces (Shane van Gisbergen, AJ Allmendinger, Michael McDowell and Chris Buescher). The race at Daytona is a complete wild card, so we do not have to worry about saving our top drivers for that race.
FANTRAX / SPEEDWAY COLLECTIVE: Group A is going to be tough this week. Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, William Byron and Denny Hamlin are the best drivers on the short, flat tracks. You really cannot go wrong with any of these drivers in your lineup, but there is a good chance that one of these drivers is going to qualify up front, lead a lot laps, score the most Stage Points and go to Victory Lane. The teams that hits on the right driver in Group A could be the top scoring team in your league Sunday.
Group B (and Group C in Speedway Collective) is not as tough this week. There are a few drivers who stand out above the rest in these groups. I plan to play the drivers from these groups who have had a lot of success on the short, flat tracks (Iowa, Phoenix and Richmond) over the last year and a half.
Should we take a chance with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in Group C of FanTrax and Group D in the Speedway Collective game? Stenhouse has three wins at Iowa Speedway in the Xfinity Series and he finished 5th in the Cup Series last week. You need to play Ryan Preece or Josh Berry with Stenhouse, if you decide to use him. You need a backup plan, just in case he sucks this weekend.
* Goodyear us bringing a new tire to the track this week. This tire has never been used in the Cup Series. Chase Briscoe, Kyle Busch and Austin Cindric tested this tire at Iowa Speedway in June.
** Christopher Bell, Joey Logano and Ross Chastain participated in a tire test at New Hampshire speedway last week. The “Magic Mile” is very similar to Iowa Speedway, so I gave a bump in the rankings to these three drivers.
EARLY WEEK PICKS FOR IOWA
ONE & DONE PICK: CHRISTOPHER BELL
FANTASY LIVE PICKS
FANTRAX PICKS
SPEEDWAY COLLECTIVE
EARLY WEEK BEST BETS FOR IOWA
Here is my early-week, Best Bets for the Iowa Corn 350…
CHRISTOPHER BELL (+500): Bell is my pick to win the Iowa Corn 350 after I crunched the numbers for Sunday’s race. He won on a similar track in Phoenix earlier this year. He also won at New Hampshire last year (another short, flat track). The No. 20 team should be able to take the notes from last year’s race in Iowa and improve on their 4th-place finish.
RYAN BLANEY (+600): Blaney led 201 of the 350 laps last year and he went to Victory Laney. I know the No. 12 team seems to be jinxed this year, but there should not be three drivers with shorter odds than Blaney. The No. 12 team will likely bring a setup similar to what they had last year. With a few adjustments, Blaney should have a car fast enough to win Sunday.
CHASE BRISCOE (+1800): I have to bet Briscoe at 18-1 odds this week. He has been one of the best drivers in the Cup Series over the last three races. Briscoe won in the Gen-7 car on a similar track in Phoenix. He tested the new Goodyear Eagles at Iowa Speedway in June, so the No. 14 team should unload with some speed this weekend.
KYLE BUSCH (+2500): It has been a while since we have seen Busch in Victory Lane. Bubba Wallace broke a 100-race winless streak last week. I think Busch could do the same in Iowa…. Richard Childress Racing hasn’t been able to unload with a lot of speed this year. That could change this week. Goodyear is bringing a tire to the track this week that has never been raced before in the Cup Series. Guess who tested this tire at Iowa Speedway in June. It was Rowdy Busch. I think this extra track time with help the No. 8 team Sunday. Austin Dillon won on a similar track at Richmond last year. His teammate (Kyle Busch) should be able to do the same in Iowa.
* I will update these picks after qualifying this weekend.
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