Iowa Speedway looks easy enough. It’s a 7/8-mile oval that has become one of the more popular racetracks in the country. After playing host to the NASCAR Xfinity Series from 2009 through 2019, not only did that series return to Iowa last year, but it also brought NASCAR Cup with it for the very first time.
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The driver who won the inaugural Cup race there last year, Ryan Blaney, hopes to make it back-to-back wins in America’s heartland on Sunday.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” Blaney said. “That’s a special place for me and for my mom’s side of the family. We had a lot of people there last year supporting us. That was a fun Victory Lane.
“It’s not often that you get to have 80 people with you in Victory Lane, and heck, half of them I’d never met before — kids of cousins I haven’t seen in years. So that was special. So, I’d like to go up there and defend, and we’ll see if we can do that.”
Blaney had to pay close attention to all four corners in particular en route to last year’s win because they had all been repaved (but not the entire track) a month before the Cup race. It made it seem like drivers were on two different tracks in one: a newly repaved one as well as an old-paved track with plenty of bumps.
“It’s like driving in two different realities in one turn,” Blaney said.
He then added, “It was a tricky one, because getting into (Turn) 1, your braking point was old pavement, but then you would get to new pavement like 10 to 15 car-lengths later. So, it was like judging, ‘Hey, I have to brake and lift here in the old stuff, but then I have to recalibrate for when I get to the new stuff.
“The corner pace was incredibly high, but I still think it put on a good show.”
Indeed, he did, dominating by leading 201 of the race’s 350 laps, including the final 88.
Blaney comes into Sunday’s race seventh in the standings. In the first 22 races of the season – and with four races remaining in the 26-race regular season — Blaney has amassed one win (Nashville), which gave him an automatic berth in the upcoming playoffs, along with seven top-five and 10 top-10 finishes.
However, the North Carolina native might have better stats if it weren’t for the seven DNFs he’s acquired (five by crash, two by engine failure).
“We’ve just been in some bad spots at the wrong time and have not been able to get the finishes that we want or deserve,” he said. “I look at it as we’re doing a lot of good things, and I’m happy with where our group is at, and I’m happy with the speed.
“I’m hoping that things smooth up for us, and that’s all you can do, really.”
