On Saturday, drivers, insiders, and race fans were witness to one of the most unusual tracks ever at the Iowa Speedway. NASCAR’s partial repave does not make the track aesthetically pleasing and there’s been a lot of uncertainty about how cars would race on it on Sunday. Well, the Xfinity Series drivers got that experience on Saturday and unfortunately, the reviews have not been that great.
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One of the biggest areas of concern seems to be the restart zone where the asphalt is visibly uneven. Sheldon Creed was one of the drivers who went from P3 to P5 on the final restart, ruining his chance to compete for the race win. Starting on the outside from the restart zone can prove advantageous but as far as Creed is concerned, the entire track needs to be repaved properly.
“I hope they just repave the entire corner. I think it needs that and repave both lanes all the way to the restart zone,” Creed said. “It will be interesting to see Cup cars tomorrow. They’re probably going to be all over the place like we were on restarts and then I don’t see them being able to pass as easy as it was for us.”
Tire troubles that plagued Cup drivers in the practice and qualifying sessions were on full display as several cars slashed tires running over the uneven asphalt. Justin Allgaier was one such person. While he was not happy about losing his tires, the veteran said that the repaved restart zone did not make as much of a difference to the racing.
More comments on whether the weird paving job near start of the restart zone, where the outside lane is repaved and the inside lane is not, had much of an impact. From Sam Mayer, Riley Herbst and Sheldon Creed: https://t.co/F29d5zzDvB pic.twitter.com/SvWNoRfiak
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) June 15, 2024
“I don’t know if it affected the outcome a whole lot, I mean as long as the lane is rolling. It was more about strategy today, guys that weren’t able to fire off kind of jamming lanes up or missing gears. That was probably a bigger hit to it than what the actual pavement was,” the JR Motorsports driver explained.
If it’s a game of strategy, then Sunday’s race should be a mouth-watering fixture with high tire degradation. However, if it’s going to be single-groove racing throughout, no one is going to be a fan of the action since passing will almost be impossible.
