NCWTS At Iowa

Elliott Could Be A Factor At Iowa

Although Chase Elliott has only made three NCWTS so far in his young career, the Dawsonville, Ga., native has made an immediate impact finishing in the top 10 in each start. Elliott’s average finish in his first three series starts is 5.0, tying him with 2000 rookie of the year Kurt Busch for the best three-race debut for a true NASCAR national series rookie in NASCAR Camping World Truck Series history.

Elliott has finished sixth, fifth and fourth in starts at Martinsville, Rockingham and Dover, respectively.

Elliott has shown his learning curve in the NCWTS has been smooth as the 17-year-old driver has adapted quickly to the national series machines, which could mean more history this weekend. This weekend at Iowa could be another record-setting one for the series if Elliott can return to Victory Lane at Iowa.

Elliott picked up his first NASCAR Touring Series victory at Iowa Speedway winning the NASCAR K&N Pro Series race in 2012 and if he is able to pilot his No. 94 Chevrolet to the checkered flag he would break Ryan Blaney’s record as the youngest winner in the history of the series. Blaney won the most recent NCWTS race held at Iowa Speedway last September.

Elliott, along with veteran crew chief Lance McGrew, will enter the next two truck series events as they will also compete at Eldora after the trip to America’s heartland this weekend.

 

Can Blaney Make It Two In A Row And A First For Ford?

Ryan Blaney enjoyed a record-setting night the last time the trucks raced at Iowa Speedway becoming the youngest winner in series history in just his third career start. Last year he won the event in a Brad Keselowski Racing RAM. On Saturday night, Blaney will go for two in a row and possibly give Ford its first NCWTS win at Iowa.

Blaney has raised his performance in the series up a notch recently coming off of his second top-five finish in the past three races and also scoring his first national series pole during qualifying in Kentucky.

Blaney surprised the NASCAR world when he scored the win driving for Keselowski, and while a win this weekend wouldn’t catch anyone off guard, another win could be just as important for his team.

“This date couldn’t have come sooner, I’ve been waiting to get back to Iowa in the Truck Series ever since I left there last September victorious. Our team has really buckled down over the past month and my confidence is at an all-time high.”

BKR is the only team competing full-time in a Ford and Blaney’s boss Brad Keselowski finished second at Kentucky while Blaney finished fifth. While those are impressive finishes, the last time Ford visited Victory Lane in a NCWTS race was on June 13, 2009 when Colin Braun won driving a Roush Racing Ford.

 

Points Battle Remains Tight

Although he had to finish strong at Kentucky to keep his season-long streak of top-10 finishes alive, Matt Crafton has used his consistency to remain atop the points standings since picking up his win at Kansas Speedway back in April. Crafton enjoys a 22-point lead over Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender Jeb Burton, while Ty Dillon used his win at Kentucky to move up to third in the standings just 40 points out of first place. 

Three of the top-10 drivers in the current points standings heading into the weekend have won at Iowa Speedway. Crafton won in 2011, with Ryan Blaney (6th) winning in 2012 and Timothy Peters (10th) the defending winner of this weekend’s event.

 

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series 

Johnny Sauter has finished among the top five in all five NASCAR Camping World Truck races at Iowa Speedway with a best performance of second to Austin Dillon in 2010. ThorSport teammate and 2011 winner Matt Crafton is five-for-five in top 10s. …Two-time series champion Todd Bodine returns to the No. 13 ThorSport Toyota this week. … Steve Wallace makes his first NCWTS appearance since running four races in 2010 which included a 30th-place Iowa finish. … Last summer’s race featured Iowa’s largest margin of victory (1.586 seconds) with the smallest margin of victory (0.168 seconds) recorded in September.