NEWTON — Iowa Speedway, in its formative years, served as a launching pad for future NASCAR Cup Series champions Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano.
Could Ty Gibbs be the next Iowa Speedway winner on that champions list?
Such a thought would have been unfathomable a year ago, when Gibbs was 16th in the points standings and wildly inconsistent. But Iowa Speedway fans, who sold out this venue for a third straight year since Cup racing came to the 7/8-mile “Fastest Short Track on the Planet,” on Aug. 9 got to see a driver in Gibbs who looked poised to contend for NASCAR’s top prize.
Gibbs staved off Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell in a heart-pounding final 19 laps, riding worn-out left-side tires to their limits to take the checkered flag in the Iowa Corn 350.
“(It’s) week to week for me,” said the 23-year-old grandson of his Hall of Fame team owner. “But, obviously want to win the title.”
All the talk lately has been about Denny Hamlin’s growing points lead and quest for his first, long-elusive Cup Series championship. The thought was Hamlin’s biggest challenges might come from Tyler Reddick, who has led the points most of this season, or two-time series champ Blaney, who sat on the Iowa Corn 350 pole and was expected to win here.
But Gibbs, despite a slow pit stop that dropped him from the top five to 28th in the early going, methodically marched forward without panic on Sunday. He looked like a championship-level driver amid Iowa’s summer heat, pocketing his second career win and 15th top-10 of the season.
The narrative of the hot-tempered grandson of Joe Gibbs has turned into a confident, consistent driver capable of competing with — and beating — NASCAR’s biggest names. Over his last six races, Gibbs has accumulated 285 points — an average of 47½ per outing. (A race winner gets 55 plus any stage points.)
“My teammates have been a big help to me in my career, and obviously me to them,” Gibbs said of his revival. He’s finished 18th, 15th and 19th in his first three full-time seasons in Cup. “We all work hard to get our organization better and our program better, but my confidence doesn’t waver. I’m not like a head case.
“Every single weekend is different, and there’s always different things going on. If you’re searching for confidence, you need to go do a therapy session or do something else.”
Gibbs moved from fourth to second in points, jumping past Blaney and Reddick, with Iowa’s 69-point boon. The points leader starts the 10-race “Chase” push with 2,100 points, second place starts with 2,075 and third starts with 2,065. Gibbs is currently 103 points back of Hamlin, but that gap could very well shrink to 25 after Aug. 29.
Going into Sunday’s race at Iowa Speedway, Hamlin, 45, was the championship favorite at +140 odds, according to FanDuel Sportsbook. Gibbs was the seventh choice, listed at +1400. That likely will change after his Iowa showing and as the realization grows that he is a legit championship threat.
“I think we’re all pretty close,” Gibbs said of the Toyotas, which now occupy five of the top six spots in points. “I think that the big thing (vs. Hamlin) is Denny is just such a great driver and has so much experience. I think that’s the difference.”
Iowa Speedway president signals strong future ahead
Iowa Speedway has truly made a remarkable comeback story. The 7/8-mile track was seemingly fading from prominence, with only an ARCA Series race and an IndyCar rental in 2023. But in October 2023, when NASCAR needed a date for the 2024 Cup Series calendar, Iowa Speedway — owned by NASCAR — became a late addition.
Ever since, the speedway has come to life. The 2024 Cup Series race here sold out, with a popular winner in Ryan Blaney, whose mom has Iowa roots. The 2026 race here celebrated a third straight Cup sellout, and now the track seems like it’s becoming a fixture for years to come on the Cup calendar. Earlier in the week, Iowa Speedway was announced as the iconic July 4 race date on NASCAR’s Cup Series schedule for 2027 — with the first full repave of the track since it was constructed in 2005.
“Without the fans selling out the racetrack, we’re not having the same conversation we have now,” Iowa Speedway president Eric Peterson told the Register, “which is great.
“It’s really been monumental. It’s been an honor to be here, quite frankly.”
The upgrades will also include repaved concourse areas and fan zones, with additional camping being possible outside of Turn 1 and more fan and sponsor areas outside of Turn 4. The capacity of the speedway, which is around 30,000, won’t be increased, however. Peterson said the ratio of parking and restrooms to fans are ideal, and the speedway didn’t want to change that formula.
“As a race fan myself and a guy with two kids, bathroom lines, concession lines, it’s perfect right now,” Peterson said. “We don’t want to make that a negative point.”
Ticket renewals for next year have been brisk, Peterson said. The repave will cost roughly $14 million, with construction beginning immediately. The hope is to complete the repave by early November. More track wear usually produces better racing, which is one reason the aged Iowa track has produced exciting action in recent years.
“With Iowa weather, I have a feeling that it’s going to age quicker than it would in another part of the country,” Peterson said. “So, I’m not concerned about the product for 2027.”
Runner-up Christopher Bell feels sour about four-tire pit stop
Christopher Bell and the number 2 continue to have a love-hate relationship.
Second-place finishes are incredibly valuable in NASCAR’s reformatted points championship. Bell, though, is probably sick of runner-up performances.
He has seven of them this season through 22 races, with zero firsts. Bell, incredibly, has four runner-up finishes in his last five races.
“We had control of the race and were leading laps,” Bell said. “We had the pace to do it, had the track position to do it. Didn’t do it.”
So, what happened?
Bell crew chief Adam Stevens opted for four fresh tires on the final pit stop, allowing Gibbs to answer a few laps later with two. Gibbs used the strategy to retake the lead, then held off Bell’s late charges.
Should Bell have taken two?
“Absolutely,” the driver said. “…We saw guys stay out all day (on zero or two fresh tires) and they were fine.”
Bell, a 2018 and 2019 winner at Iowa Speedway in the former Xfinity Series, has always been a proponent of this track. He wasn’t thrilled when the track did a partial repave in the corners ahead of the 2024 Cup race here.
“I’m excited about it. It was always my favorite racetrack before they did this,” Bell said. “The repaves, everyone hates repaves. If they do this now, at least they have time for it to age. It should have been done two years ago.”
An exhausting drive for points leader Denny Hamlin
Denny Hamlin exited his No. 11 Toyota Camry as if he’d just walked 100 miles through a desert, completely drained and dehydrated after a 350-lap drive with almost no brakes. A support-staff member quickly rushed to bring him ice, as he gingerly walked from his car to the pit-lane wall, where he sat soaked in sweat. Somehow, after starting 29th, the points leader brought his car home in fifth place amid blistering temperatures. The heat index surpassed 105 degrees during the race, according to USA’s broadcast.
Hamlin is retiring after the 2027 season but joked that he might hang up the firesuit sooner if he had to suffer more days like this.
There were issues with brakes on several Toyotas leading up to the race (including for sixth-place Chase Briscoe), and Hamlin was complaining on the team radio about the issue early in the first stage. He wasn’t able to drive as hard as he wanted to in the corners, genuinely not knowing if he could slow down.
“Just had to white-knuckle every lap, obviously not knowing where my car was going to land when I got into the corner,” Hamlin said. “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. I would take that day 100 out of 100 times.”
Ryan Blaney settled for third, Josh Berry was fourth and Hamlin logged his series-best 13th top-five finish. No other driver has more than 10 top-fives.
Iowa Speedway was unkind to several star drivers
Tyler Reddick did a phone interview with the Des Moines Register a few weeks before the Iowa Corn 350. The driver who dominated the early part of NASCAR’s schedule and was still No. 2 in points was aiming to reverse bad luck he’s had in two Cup starts at Iowa.
“We haven’t really had a clean race at Iowa yet,” Reddick told the Register after finishing 22nd in 2024 and 19th in 2025. “We typically show up with good speed, though. We just haven’t finished the race.”
Well, things got worse for Reddick on lap 4 as his No. 45 Toyota got loose and crashed, taking out fellow Toyota Erik Jones in the process. Jones retired 35th and Reddick 36th (last).
While Reddick is locked into NASCAR’s 10-race “Chase” format that allows the top 16 drivers to run for the championship following the Aug. 29 race at Daytona, he dropped to fourth in points as Blaney stayed in third.
Jones entered 44 points below the cutoff. He exited 50 points out, but in 20th place, after Austin Cindric (in 16th in points) labored to a 29th-place finish.
“It’s not over till it’s over,” Jones said, “but it’s a tall amount now.”
Another notable driver with trouble included Kyle Larson, who suffered a bent toe-link after contact with teammate Alex Bowman (who was 34th). He went 3 laps down with the issue, later had to go to the garage and finished 33rd and fell to 10th in points. Larson will return to Iowa this week in an effort to claim his fourth win in the renowned Knoxville Nationals after A-main titles in 2021, 2023 and 2024.
Carson Hocevar, who got the nickname “The Hurricane” a year ago at Iowa Speedway, had engine trouble in the second stage and slogged to a 31st finish. He went from fifth in points to eighth.
Hawkeyes columnist Chad Leistikow has served for 31 years with The Des Moines Register and USA TODAY Sports Network. Chad is the 2023 INA Iowa Sports Columnist of the Year and NSMA Co-Sportswriter of the Year in Iowa. Join Chad’s text-message group at HawkCentral.com/HawkeyesTexts. Follow @ChadLeistikow on X.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: 5 thoughts after Ty Gibbs’ thrilling win at Iowa Speedway | Leistikow
Reporting by Chad Leistikow, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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By Chad Leistikow, Des Moines Register | USA TODAY Network
