Friday’s NASCAR Cup Series practice session raised concerns in drivers’ minds as the sport prepares to go racing at Iowa Speedway for the first time this Sunday. While Toyota-backed drivers seemed to struggle with abnormal tire behavior on the track, Chase Elliott seemed to have a decent outing on Friday.
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The session was red-flagged a couple of times due to Ross Chastain and Christopher Bell losing control after tire blowouts on the track. Speaking on whether similar issues affected Elliott’s session, the Hendrick Motorsports driver elaborated, “I don’t really know, I’m not sure. We just got done running so curious to dive in and see if it had anything to do with pressure locations or manufacturer setups. Who knows? We’ll see,” he said during a media interaction.
“I really don’t know until we kind of get out there and see”
Chase Elliott on if the tire issues that happened practice will affect the racing on Sunday.
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Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell blew a right front tire and was sent into the backup car whereas Chastain faced issues as his left rear tire gave way and a couple of tow trucks were required to get his #1 Chevy off the track. Apart from them, many others faced tire issues as well but the manufacturer most affected seemed to be the Japanese OEM, Toyota.
As far as the track goes, Elliott believes that the bottom lane was the most advantageous during practice but by the time the Cup race goes live, the lanes higher up might prove to be quite useful as well.
Chase Elliott reveals track conditions ahead of intriguing race weekend
It’s important to note that since the track has been repaved recently, not a lot of rubber has been laid down on the new surface. Certain areas of the track do not have as much grip as the others.
However, once the rubber is laid down from the ARCA and Xfinity Series races, it will open the track up for the Cup Series race. Elliott also touched on how continuous rubber buildup on the bottom lane could also work against the drivers at some point with the surface tending to become slick after a certain point in time.
“Honestly, I was thinking that it would be a lot of grip around the bottom. I do think the second lane will be decent at some point, but it will definitely need to be worked in. It kind of has that fresh repaved shine to it that is not very inviting to want to go run on. But in the race, you’ll certainly be forced to run higher and I think that’ll end up working it in,” the #9 driver explained.
It remains to be seen whether NASCAR’s debut at the track proves fruitful on a weekend where most fear the disadvantages of the Next Gen car could make the event a procession of sorts.
