Blaney achieves his first victory of 2024 at Iowa Speedway

Sunday night’s race was the first NASCAR Cup race on the short track of Iowa Speedwaywhich has hosted Xfinity, Truck, ARCA and IndyCar races in the past.

In a race where teams were cautious about tire wear – and several paid the price by crashing into the wall after suffering a few punctures – Blaney and his #12 Penske Ford dominated a strategic race.

In the final caution of the race, Blaney was the first out of the pits by mounting only two new tires on the right side. The race, which had up to eight yellow flags, ended with 84 green flag laps and Ryan Blaney never had any serious challenger for the lead.

William Byron and Chase Elliott – both on four new tires at the final stop – tried to pass Blaney, but their attempts were in vain. Blaney beat Byron by 0.716s as they crossed the checkered flag to take his first victory of the year.

Blaney led four times over 201 laps on his way to the 11th victory of his racing career and the second for Penske in the last three rounds. It was Blaney’s teammate, Austin Cindric, who won at Gateway two weeks ago when Blaney ran out of gas.

Elliott finished third, Christopher Bell – who started from the back of the grid in a reserve car – was fourth and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. completed the top five.

The top 10 was completed by Joey Logano, Josh Berry, Alex Bowman, Daniel Suárez and Brad Keselowski.

Stage 1 of the 2024 NASCAR Cup race at Iowa Speedway

Blaney passed Kyle Larson with nine laps remaining and won Stage 1 by 0.260 seconds, which was his second stage win of the 2024 season. Suarez finished third, Byron fourth and Berry fifth.

AJ Allmendinger was the first to suffer a tire problem in the race and went into the turn 1 wall on lap 52 after the right front of his #16 Chevrolet collapsed. He retired from the race after 54 laps.

Stage 2 of the 2024 NASCAR Cup race at Iowa Speedway

Larson rallied from 33rd to first and defeated Berry by 1.762 seconds to take the Stage 2 victory, his eighth of the 2024 season.

Larson pitted under caution on lap 86 when he thought he had a tire that was nearing its end, but showed no problems. Elliott was third, Blaney fourth and Bubba Wallace rounded out the top five.

Just after the round of green flag pit stops began, Ross Chastain suffered a blown right front tire and touched the wall, but was able to get his #1 Chevrolet to the pits. He recovered and finished 19th in the stage.

Stage 3 of the 2024 NASCAR Cup race at Iowa Speedway

After the break between Stages 2 and 3, most of the cars on the leading lap opted to pit, with Keselowski being the first to exit thanks to a two-tire stop. Chris Buescher sat out and inherited the lead as the race returned to the green flag with 132 laps remaining.

On lap 220, Suarez got into the left rear of Larson’s #5 Chevrolet, which careened down the track and crashed into the side of Denny Hamlin’s #11 Toyota.

Larson was able to continue, but suffered serious damage and was knocked out of contention in a race he looked like he was going to win. Buescher took the lead on lap 228.

Buescher then hit the wall with a flat tire and sent everyone to the pits on lap 263 for new tires and fuel to make it to the end of the race.

Blaney was the first out of the pits with two new tires and led the race on the restart with 84 laps remaining. Berry was fourth and was also the first car with four new tires.

With 50 laps to go, Blaney was still in the lead with almost a second ahead of Byron and Elliott.

Byron got within a second of Blaney with 25 laps remaining and Elliott was closing in to fight for second place, but there was no change in the final positions.

2024 NASCAR Cup Race Results at Iowa Speedway