NEWTON, Iowa – When the caution fell on Lap 218 for a three-car accident on the backstretch at Iowa Speedway, many of Saturday night’s American Ethanol E15 250 race contenders found themselves trapped a lap down.
Before then, much of the top-half of the field elected to stay out during the previous caution for two separate incidents involving Spencer Gallagher and Dexter Bean from Lap 163 to 169.
With fresh Goodyear tires being a necessity, teams had hoped a yellow would strike before being forced to make green flag pit stops inside the final 40 laps of the race.
Most would wait in vain.
On fumes, eventual race winner William Byron was about to pit under green when Ryan Reed, Brennan Poole collided, collecting pole sitter and then race leader Christopher Bell in the process.
The eighth caution of the day was a prime opportunity for those who had pitted under green flag conditions to take the wave around to get back on the lead lap – but all the lead lap cars had to pit.
Dylan Lupton who was running fourth didn’t.
He couldn’t.
He was out of tires and didn’t need fuel.
Banking on strategy, Lupton pitted under the Lap 163 caution hoping the race would showcase a similar situation from last year where the field stretched to a nearly 100-lap green flag run that ultimately gave Sam Hornish Jr. the victory.
With the NASCAR Next alumnus staying out, the cars of Justin Allgaier, Cole Custer, Brendan Gaughan, Daniel Hemric, Brandon Jones, Ben Kennedy and Matt Tifft stayed trapped a lap down – putting some new faces up front and racing to strong finishes.
Four of the top-five finishers earned a career-best finish including Byron, second-place runner Ryan Sieg, Tyler Reddick and Ross Chastain. Dakoda Armstrong who finished fifth tied his career-best in XFINITY Series competition matched last July at Iowa driving for Joe Gibbs Racing.
Other notables inside the top-10 included: Michael Annett (sixth), Jeremy Clements (seventh) and Garrett Smithley (10th).
Of course, while many of the powerhouse XFINITY Series teams left the iconic short track upset about their finish, many of those inside the top-15 had much to celebrate about.
“It was crazy,” Sieg told NASCAR.com afterward. “I couldn’t believe I was running second on that last restart and just trying to fight for the win there. It was fun racing with Tyler (Reddick, third-place finisher) at the end. We had a little bit of a battle. It was awesome. Great pit call and great finish.”
Reddick earned his best showing in his seventh start in the No. 42 Chevrolet, a ride he shares with Chip Ganassi Racing teammate and Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series star Kyle Larson.
“I’m happy for my team that works so hard preparing a great BBR Music Group Chevy every time I’m behind the wheel,” he said. “We worked all night trying to get the car to handle better off the turns and when the tire sequence fell our way, I felt like it was our time to make a move.
“The bottom groove was extremely hard to pass and I hoped to clear the 39 car on the last restart and maybe challenge William (Byron) for the win. It’s certainly disappointing to feel like everything was falling our way, but we know it’s all about improving every time I’m in the car.”
“Up and down man,” said an enthusiastic Chastain who earned his first XFINITY Series top-five in 87 races. “Started off slow. Really tight at the beginning. Man, just kept working on it all night. They didn’t give up on me. It’s an awesome feeling. I don’t what all happened with the strategy there.
“At the end, luckily the car came to us and I think Gary (Cogswell, crew chief) knew what he was doing all along. Not giving up, that’s the whole thing. The good Lord was looking out for us above and got Watermelons here in the top-five.”
For Armstrong, he led the JGL Racing train with his second career top-five finish. It was a battle for New Castle, Ind. native who qualified seventh but dropped to the rear for a flat tire on the starting grid.
“It was really good,” said Armstrong who lifted to 11th in points following the finish. “Obviously, the strategy – the whole team strategy was good and kinda what got us up there. We actually had a good car all night. I think we had a top-10 car straight up pretty easily. Even on the very end of the long run, we were just as fast as the leaders, we just never could get track position with new tires and get up there.
“Even at the very end there, we only had scuffs. I thought we could have finished second if we had new tires like some of the other guys around us. Still a great job by everybody. The car was good. Qualified seventh, just starting the race with the left rear going flat having to go for the rear just put us in a strategy mode all night.
“Good recovery all night. We even had another problem where we didn’t get any gas in one stop and had to come back in another time and that’s kinda where we lost our set of tires, but still a good recovery after all. We had a good car. Can’t complain.”
Annett, Byron’s JR Motorsports teammate struggled to find the balance of his No. 5 Chevrolet throughout the race – but using strategy, the team earned their fifth top-10 of 2017.
We were really tight for a long time, and the car was bouncing some during the night, but at the end, we put the Northland Oil Chevrolet in a good spot for the race to the finish,” said Annett.
“The last two races, we’ve had good strategy and it didn’t work out, but this weekend it did. I’m happy to get a good finish here in Iowa, at my home track, with my family and friends here to see it. Jason (Stockert, crew chief) and our Northland team made the car better every time we hit pit road, and we were in the mix for the top five when the race ended. That’s a good feeling, and we’ll go to Daytona with some momentum.”
Clements driving for his family-owned No. 51 Chevrolet earned his best finish since an eighth at Darlington Raceway last September.
Smithley quietly rounded out the top-10 to earn his best non-superspeedway finish and give JD Motorsports with Gary Keller two cars in the top-10 for what it believed to be the first time on a non-superspeedway track.
“This is huge for our team,” said Smithley who qualified 31st. “We’ve really been struggling the start of this year, and we’ve been slowly been improving, and this is really big for us. I’m hoping we can build off this momentum and keep this up, cause I had a blast driving!”
Martins who started 30th gave B.J. McLeod Motorsports its second-best result of the year and career best effort for the No. 78 Chevrolet team. Jeff Green edged Martins with a 10th place showing at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway in May. After spending the last few weeks driving for RSS Racing, Green is expected to return to the three-car organization at Daytona next weekend.
“Career night for me,” Martins said with endless smiles. “All I could do is thank B.J. (McLeod) for giving me a chance when no one besides my dad ever would. It’s special for me and everyone that’s supported me. So, happy for the team and everyone involved that made this happen.”
Other notables included: Quin Houff who continues to impress in Precision Performance Motorsports equipment. Houff, an experienced short track racer finished 12th and earned his career best finish bettering a solid 15th place showing in his debut at Bristol Motor Speedway in April.
He’ll return to the seat at Kentucky Speedway in July.
David Starr, the third car for B.J. McLeod Motorsports finished 14th – earning his best finish at Iowa in four starts and collected his first top-15 finish since Dover International Speedway in May 2015.
And Lupton? Well, he finished 15th – salvaging a solid day where he continues to show improvement behind the wheel of a XFINITY Series car.
Give him credit where credit is due. Even with no tires – Lupton didn’t fight. Restarting with the race lead, the Wilton, Calif. native stayed high on the restart and let those faster pass him on the bottom.
Falling as far back as 18th, he recovered to 15th earning his second top-15 finish with the No. 24 Nut Up Industries Toyota in his fifth race of 2017.
As for the teams who were trapped a lap down? Justin Allgaier utilized a free pass to recover for ninth place finish – but I think Hemric summed it up best for his No. 21 team and those around him in a tweet:
“Some days you’re the windshield & some days you’re the bug. (Tonight), we were the bug. Things we can’t control cost us, solid effort 21 team.”
Some days you're the windshield & some days you're the bug. Tonight, we were the bug. Things we can't control cost us, solid effort 21 team
— Daniel Hemric (@DanielHemric) June 25, 2017
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
