NEWTON, Iowa — Propelled by a late strategy call that vaulted him ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell, Ty Gibbs held off the charging Bell to win Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Iowa Speedway.
The pivotal sequence of the race came as Bell and Gibbs, in that order, each came down pit road with 60 laps remaining for their final scheduled stops of the day. Bell’s crew chief, Adam Stevens, opted for a four-tire stop, while Tyler Allen, Gibbs’ crew chief, elected for just two tires with the intent of leapfrogging Bell for the lead.
Allen’s call worked. When the pit stop sequence concluded, Gibbs was in the lead — a lead he wouldn’t relinquish. The grandson of team owner and three-time Super Bowl-winning head coach Joe Gibbs led the final 20 laps to earn his second-career win.
“Everybody has been doing a great job, and it’s been fun to work with everybody and everybody has been so encouraging,” Ty Gibbs said. “Made some big strides from last year, obviously, and (it’s) super fun.”
Bell finished second. Ryan Blaney finished third, with Josh Berry fourth and Denny Hamlin, another JGR driver, in fifth.
Bell’s runner-up finish on Sunday marked the seventh time he’s placed in that position this season. Afterward, Bell’s frustration was palpable, both with the fact he’s yet to win this season and that his team didn’t make the same strategy call as Gibbs’ team. He referred to his latest runner-up finish as a “bad second-place finish.”
“Yeah,” Bell said when asked if his team should’ve gone with the same strategy as Gibbs. He also noted how he was able to maintain speed earlier in the race after both stopping for two tires and not stopping for tires at all.
“We saw guys stay out all day and were fine,” Bell said. “I took two tires at one point, felt fine; I stayed out, felt fine.”
Standing a few feet from Bell on pit road, Stevens’ disappointment was just as palpable. The crew chief described the call as “50-50” on how many tires to make, but said he stood by his decision, noting that he believed it put the team in the best position to win. He also didn’t think the final 132 laps would go caution-free.
“I thought that was the right move,” Stevens said. “Obviously, none of us knew it was going to stay green the rest of the day. And once (Blaney) took four (tires), which we expected him to because he did right (side tires) at the stage (break), and seeing how he fell off, I didn’t think that that was the winning move. I knew the only car that could pass us with two was (Gibbs’), everybody else, if they chose to take two, would still come out behind us. So we tried to open up the biggest gap we could, knowing that we would come out in proximity even if he did take two.”
— Jordan Bianchi
Reddick slumps further
As great as Tyler Reddick’s first half of the season went, the second half has been decidedly less stellar, with Sunday bringing yet more frustration. The 23XI Racing driver, who won five of the first nine races, spun four laps into the race and made heavy contact with both Erik Jones and the outside wall.
Reddick finished 36th on Sunday, marking the sixth time in the past nine races he’s finished 25th or worse. The team hoped that coming off an off-weekend would allow a good opportunity to reset, but it wasn’t the case. Adding salt to the wound: Reddick took out Toyota teammate Erik Jones, who’s fighting for a spot in the Chase playoffs.
“For us to take ourselves out is one thing, but to take out a fellow Toyota teammate when they are racing for the Chase — pretty much ended their day as well,” Reddick said. “It is the type of stuff you don’t do to yourself, and you don’t do to a teammate.”
That tailspin has cost Reddick dearly in the standings, erasing his once sizable points lead. He’s now all but eliminated from winning the regular-season championship as he trails leader Denny Hamlin by 120 points with three races left before the Chase begins.
— Jordan Bianchi
Jones takes huge points hit
There was optimism that bubble-driver Jones could have a solid day and stay in the Chase race with four races remaining until the cutoff, but the early wreck with Reddick ended his chances of a good weekend — and maybe finished off his postseason hopes in the process.
Jones was an innocent bystander when Reddick slid up the track and took him out, dooming his hopes with a 35th-place finish after qualifying a strong 10th.
Jones went from 44 points below the cut line to 50 points back, one day after saying this: “One more bad week when we lose any ground and it’s going to be pretty insurmountable, so we need to have a great weekend. … Hopefully we can stay in it, but I think it’s kind of one more (bad) week and it’ll be a tough hill.”
That hill now seems Everest-like with only three races remaining until the Chase field is set.
“It’s a huge mountain now (from) here on out to get to the Chase, so we will see,” Jones said after the wreck.
— Jeff Gluck
SVG spin hurts Chase cushion
Though Trackhouse Racing’s cars showed speed on Sunday, that did not include Shane van Gisbergen.
The New Zealand driver known as “SVG” was struggling with his car’s handling early in Stage 2 and then spun out while running 31st, ultimately finishing 30th.
Though van Gisbergen came into Iowa with a 57-point cushion to the cutoff line, that was whittled to 47 points. The 10-point chop could have been much worse had Ryan Preece finished better than 20th, but it still leaves SVG in a more precarious position with two more short-track races ahead to survive before unpredictable Daytona ends the regular season.
Meanwhile, van Gisbergen teammates Ross Chastain (seventh) and rookie Connor Zilisch (11th) had two of their best runs of the season.
— Jeff Gluck
Preece slightly gains ground
Short-track ace Ryan Preece finished a disappointing 20th at Iowa, but he took advantage of Austin Cindric’s poor day (29th) to gain a key nine points to the cutoff line.
Preece is now 29 points behind Cindric with three races remaining, including two more short tracks.
“From a points perspective, everybody worked hard to make the car better, so I’m thankful for that,” he said. “But if we’re going to make the Chase, we’ve got to be better on short tracks. Richmond, New Hampshire — these are all places we’ve got to work hard on. … We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Preece noted RFK Racing co-owner Brad Keselowski is “a very influential person in our organization,” and he trusted Keselowski to push the team toward a better direction on short tracks in the next two weeks.
“I feel really good about us working hard and finding a good direction for Richmond and New Hampshire,” he said.
Cindric was visibly upset after the race, which saw other teammate cars show top-five speed. He sat on the pit wall and stared off in the distance for several minutes afterward, then joined his team to push the car back to the garage — a rarity for Cup drivers.
He then disappeared inside the team’s hauler. A reporter from The Athletic waited outside for more than 30 minutes until Cindric sent a polite text message declining comment on his race.
— Jeff Gluck
Iowa Speedway’s rebirth
Not long ago, Iowa Speedway was on the brink of shutting down.
Flash forward a few years and the mood surrounding Iowa is far different after the track, nearly 40 miles east of Des Moines, finally landed a long-sought Cup Series date in 2024. That inaugural race was sold out, and so have the two subsequent races. This support has prompted NASCAR to shift next year’s Iowa race to the Fourth of July weekend.
Quite a remarkable transformation.
“We’ve gone from not being on the Cup Series schedule to hosting a marquee race next Fourth of July,” Iowa president Eric Peterson noted in Sunday’s pre-race driver’s meeting.
Further adding to the sense that Iowa is now firmly entrenched on the Cup schedule, NASCAR and the state are combining to contribute $20 million towards facility upgrades that include a repave of the entire racing surface. It’s a level of commitment that strongly signals NASCAR will be visiting Iowa for many years to come.
— Jordan Bianchi
