Written by Gabriel Tsui, Edited by Vyas Ponnuri
After a dominating win for Kyle Larson in Sonoma, we head back to the midwest for another short track showdown, this time at Iowa Speedway, one of the brand new race tracks on the calendar. Heading into a brand new race, can the Chevys secure a win to keep their momentum going, or would the Fords or the Toyotas take back control?
Track Preview
The Iowa Speedway is located in Newton, Iowa, built in 2005. Originally planned to be a mile long race track, the Iowa Speedway ended up being a 0.875 mile (1.408 kilometres) long race track. The D-shaped oval has a banking on the turns ranging from 12 to 14 degrees, while the front stretch has a banking of 10 degrees.
The track has hosted IndyCar races since 2007, and owned by NASCAR since 2013, but this year is the first time the track has ever hosted a NASCAR Cup Series race, after the Auto Club Speedway had to undergo repairs.
The drivers will be racing 350 laps around the race track, with 100 laps in the first stage, then 125 laps each in the second and final stage, totalling a distance of 306.25 miles (492.86 kilometres).
The weather forecast predicts that there will be rain on Saturday, but no little to no precipitation on Sunday, with temperatures ranging from 24 to 33 degrees Celsius. The race will commence on Sunday, June 16th, at 19:00 ET (16:00 PT, 01:00 CET).
Race Predictions
After a dominating win in Sonoma, the Chevys will be high on confidence going into Iowa. So far into the season, they had a few good performances in intermediate tracks such as Vegas, Texas, and Kansas.
Going into this brand new race track, they will be facing challenges, but so will the other manufacturers. They have the strength in numbers and the speed to win in Iowa.
On the other side of the equation, the Toyotas also have great performances on intermediate tracks, picking up wins at Richmond and Phoenix. Their drivers have been exceptional at intermediate tracks, and they have an exceptional car to support the quest towards victory lane.
After a few unfortunate events in the past two race weekends, they will be looking to get back to victory lane, and the prediction is that they end their drought and pick up their first win in the month of June.
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