by NEWTON – With just under 90 laps to play and its Ford N ° 6 having a lot of fuel to reach the end of August 3 Iowa Corn 350, Brad Keselowski told the head of the Jeremy Bullins crew during the team radio for a period of caution, “Jeremy, do not take this in the wrong direction: but I do not want to see you again.”
Keselowski had been the dominant car of this counterter race closed by a beautiful Sunday afternoon at Iowa Speedway. He had swept the first two stages – his first two victories in the season of the Nascar series of the 23 -races NASCAR to date – and was best placed on the fuel and the tires to guarantee a victory that he wanted a driver and a team owner. He hoped that the race would work green the rest of the path, or at least with a minimum of incidents.
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But as the yellow flag after the yellow flag drew more warnings and allowed other best drivers to save fuel, Keselowski knew that a potentially triumphant day was moving away.
More: William Byron wins the Iowa Corn 350, the second race in the Nascar Cup series at Iowa Speedway
A race that started without warning flags for incident through 168 laps ended up equalizing a season of the Cup season with 12. Incredibly unlucky for Keselowski, of course.
A jackpot for the winner of the race William Byron, absolutely. Byron needed one of the 11 warnings in a period of 112 laps just to return to the head of the head.
Keselowski loaded late, going from 25th to third place in the last stage. But he failed 2 seconds, because Byron had enough fuel to cross the finish line first … and make a public exhaustion before his fuel pressure begins to yield.
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“He caught all the breaks, and he took advantage of it and maximized it,” said Keselowski about Byron. “He deserves credit for this. This is what this sport is talking about. You have to be fast. You have to execute. And you have to be lucky. And they have done the three things today.”
But what story would have been in Iowa for Keselowski to obtain the victory.
He entered this race in 24th place in points, well outside the cut for the playoffs of 10 races which begins on August 31. A victory, and he would have qualified for the field of 16 drivers. Keselowski may have been a long time THE The biggest defender of the races in the series of cups to come to Iowa, and this finally occurred in 2024.
Brad Keselowski (white car) leads the field during the Iowa Corn 350, alongside his compatriot Ford Ryan Blaney, on the way to win stages 1 and 2 before finishing third. William Byron was the winner.
Ryan Blaney, whose mother is from Chariton, Iowa, has become a popular winner in the race of the inaugural Cup here. Keselowski, who won a memorable XFINITY series race here in 2009 by going beyond Kyle Busch, would perhaps become Mr. Iowa Speedway if he had propelled his Ford to Victory Lane in the second foray in the series in Newton. (A return trip to the track belonging to Nascar is expected in 2026.)
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But… Ty Dillon turned for the second time on the Tour 271. A side window of Ford of Todd Gilliland gave himself up, causing the prudence of debris at 281. Byron and others (like second place Briscoe) used these opportunities to save fuel at the front.
“Each yellow was bad for us,” said Keselowski. “You are frustrated by the field for having so demolished.”
And thus, with a fuel tank of 20 gallons projecting to make around 105 rpm, Byron was able to save enough gas to operate the last 144 laps around this 7/8 mile track without stopping at the stand. Byron’s crew chief was not sure that the driver of the Chevrolet n ° 24 could have enough fuel to win his second victory of the season (the other being the Daytona 500).
“We did not know up to about eight that we were really, very close to our number (fuel thousand),” said team leader Rudy Fugle.
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To be fair, Byron did not make victory. It was strong with the drop of the green flag, leading the first 67 laps. But he finally gave way to Keselowski after an exciting battle of 42 laps, a sign that No. 6 was the best car of the day. (Keselowski also ran the fastest tour of the day, for what is worth.)
Byron had his own unluckiness in stage 2, being trapped by a turn because of a rotation of Shane Van Gisbergen on the 169 Tour.
“Just happy to be able to win today,” said Byron. “I felt like we were a car of first three and first.”
In Nascar, this is often the case that the best car and the best execution do not win the race. This reality stings for Keselowski, who had a day of monster at Iowa – goes up to five places in the standings – but ended up being the hard driver of Iowa.
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“When we had our heads, I felt like we were a little guy to beat,” Keselowski said. “Just the way the pit strategy fell at the end, it didn’t come to us. These guys who were trapped on their knees … ended up being a blessing for them, because it discouraged them, then the race came to them with all the yolks.
“It was as if we had done all the good things today. (The yellows) just removed our shot to win.”
Hawkeyes columnist Chad Leistikow served for 30 years with the monks Register and USA Today Sports Network. Chad is the Iowa 2023 sports columnist for the year and the Co-Sportswriter of the year of NSMA in Iowa. Join the Chad (free for subscribers) Sext-Message group in Hawkcentral.com/hawkeyestexts. Follow @Chadleistikow on x.
This article originally appeared on register monks: Leistikow: Brad Keselowski See Yellow after third place in Iowa
