With three races remaining in the NASCAR Cup Series regular season, it’s obvious for several drivers seeking a position in the Chase the rest of August will be nerve racking.
While Ty Gibbs’ Iowa victory coupled with Tyler Reddick’s last place finish resulted in them swapping places in the standings—Gibbs moving to second and Reddick dropping to fourth—it’s the second half of the top 16 that are going to have some sleepless nights. A short track, a one-mile facility, and then Daytona where anything can happen means 12th through 16th could be up for grabs.
Daniel Suarez is 12th, just three points behind William Bryon in 11th, but Joey Logano is 13th, only 11 points behind Suarez. Bubba Wallace, who finished 12th in the Iowa race, held on to 14th in the standings, but he’s only 21 points ahead of Shane van Gisbergen, who finished 30th at Iowa. Van Gisbergen is 15th in the standings, just 18 points ahead of Austin Cindric, who finished 20th in the Iowa Corn 350.
Knocking on the Chase door are Ryan Preece, Ross Chastain, and Brad Keselowski. Preece trails Cindric by 29 points, while Chastain is 47 points behind the Team Penske driver. Keselowski trails Cindric by 48 points.
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Ross Chastain (right) congratulates Ty Gibbs.
Of those drivers, Chastain posted the best finish at Iowa, placing seventh for his fifth top 10 this season. It was Chastain’s best finish since June at San Diego when he took seventh.
“It was an incredible weekend,” said Chastain, who led once for 40 laps. “It was just a complete weekend from the very first lap. We made very small changes all weekend. We just made a few air pressure adjustments, a couple tenths here and a couple tenths there throughout the race, and really, we could have left it alone.
“I don’t care about points unless the speed comes with it, and today was the speed we are looking for.”
Another Second for Bell
For the seventh time this year and the fourth in the last five races, Christopher Bell has had to settle for a runner-up finish. Three of those four have been to fellow Toyota drivers and two of them to Joe Gibbs Racing teammates.
Bell’s most recent second place came in Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 where he finished 0.253-second behind JGR teammate Ty Gibbs.
“I found a little free speed by downshifting, and it seemed like that really, really increased my pace, but the tires would just get so hot I would start slipping and sliding anytime I got near him (Gibbs),” Bell said. “I was trying to advance my position, I would get beside him, I would just slide. I got there a couple times, but just never got by him.”
Bell admitted Gibbs did a “great job” in defending his position.
“He was able to take my line away,” Bell said. “Early on in the race, I kind of found the very top side of the repave. Whenever I got behind Ryan (Blaney), I kept like shading lower, shading lower, I finally baited him to give me that outside, and I got to his right rear.
“That was kind of my move with Ty. I didn’t feel like I was gonna be able to pass him on the bottom, but I felt like whenever I got there, if I kept shading lower, shading lower, he was gonna keep protecting the bottom and then one time I could blitz the outside and get to his right rear. It just never happened.”
Brake Issues Plague Briscoe, Hamlin
Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin experienced brake issues in practice the day before the Iowa Corn 350 at Iowa Speedway, and they continued in the race won by teammate Ty Gibbs.
NASCAR allowed the drivers’ crews to change the brake rotors but not the brake pads on their Toyotas. However, that didn’t solve the problem.
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Both Denny Hamlin (#11) and Chase Briscoe (#19) had brake problems.
“I’d retire at the end of the year if I had to do that every week,” an exhausted Hamlin said after finishing fifth in the 350-lap event on the seven-eighths-mile track. “Lesson learned from our part, that, obviously, we got in a box that we weren’t allowed to get out of, and we just had to grind away the best we could.”
Hamlin, who leads the driver standings by 103 points over Gibbs, said he had to “white-knuckle every lap.”
“Obviously, not knowing where my car was going to land when I got into the corner, obviously, you want to have brakes, and that was a crazy race to have to do it the whole time without it, but you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. The team did an amazing job.”
Briscoe said his car’s brakes were a “little odd” and he started having trouble with them during the race’s second Stage. He still managed a sixth-place finish, his 12th top 10 this season.
Berry Snares First Top 5
Josh Berry ran in the top 10 at various times in the Iowa Corn 350 before recording his first top five this season.
Berry, who won’t return to the Wood Brothers in 2027, finished fourth in the race won by Ty Gibbs.
“We just unloaded good,” Berry said. “I felt like we left a little bit out there for qualifying and definitely had great long run pace throughout the race. Just needed it to run long enough to show it, and we were finally able to do that and overcome a lot of things.
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Josh Berry.
“Didn’t have a great day on pit road, struggled a little bit firing off. But once we got going, I felt like we were really good.”
Berry admitted that his Ford struggled at times with rear grip.
“I felt like we held on pretty good compared to most, but just had to get the car tightened up, and I think the second half of the race we got that,” Berry said. “That just allows you to move around and run the different lanes, make passes, set up passes and trust the rear of the car.”
A North Carolina native, Deb Williams is an award-winning motorsports journalist who is in her fourth decade covering auto racing. In addition to covering the sport for United Press International, she has written motorsports articles for several newspapers, magazines and websites including espnW.com, USA Today, and The Charlotte Observer. Her awards include the American Motorsports Media Award of Excellence, two-time National Motorsports Press Association writer of the year, and two-time recipient of the Russ Catlin award. She also has won an award in the North Carolina Press Association’s sports feature category. During her career, Deb has been managing editor of GT Motorsports magazine and was with Winston Cup Scene and NASCAR Winston Cup Scene for 18 years, serving as the publication’s editor for 10 years. In 2024 she was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame.