Two Tire Ty
Iowa Corn 350: Ty Gibbs captured his second win of the 2026 campaign (and his career) after capturing the checkered flag Sunday afternoon at Iowa Speedway in the Iowa Corn 350. Gibbs held off a hard-charging Christopher Bell in the waning laps to capture the win and catapult himself to second in the NASCAR Cup Series points standings. Gibbs also overcame a pit stop issue earlier in the race to take the win. Major kudos have to go to his crew chief, Tyler Allen, for successfully managing the pit strategy after the near-catastrophe on pit road to put Gibbs out front late.
I did not catch much of the first two stages of the race as my wife, my in-laws, and I were in the trenches of a laundry room takeover. After many trips to Lowe's (and fixing a few things days later), the laundry room is finished! All that said, I finally sat down and locked in on the race in stage three. I did what I could to catch up on Twitter for action from stages 1 and 2. And it seemed like I missed all the action and incidents for the day. But as far as the racing went, it appeared that Stage 3 was much of the same as the rest of the race. You could, kind of, make passes depending on pit strategy, catching traffic, and which lane you and your competition was in, but tires did not matter too too much, as drivers who took two tires at times throughout the day could have net gains and hold off cars who took four. But still, the cars were on edge with tire wear and a worn out surface. The worn surface and half repave did allow for multi-groove, side-by-side racing, which added to the excitement and intensity throughout the day. Yet, clean air was still king, and fast cars could defend slighlty faster cars with well timed blocks to shut off clean air to the trailing car. And, although it was just in the first two stages, we did have attrition, and that definitely played a role, as it did impact, mostly, some top competitors for the day. We also had a great pit strategy race, and while that may not always yield great racing, it does intrigue me, and I enjoy following it as the race plays out. Also, we had absolutely bonkers restarts, as drivers knew they had to get all they could ASAP to help them in longer runs and capitalize on their pit strategy. And through it all, it was clear it would be Toyota v. Toyota for the win, as Gibbs and Bell rising to the top in the final stage (although Blaney wasn't too far back). On the surface, I assumed Bell would catch and clear Gibbs in the final few laps, as he was on four newer tires and Gibbs had only taken two. It was also clear that Gibbs, while driving immaculately, was starting to slip and slow down. However, Gibbs was able to keep Bell behind him and capture his second checkered flag of the year in a thrilling battle in the closing laps of the Iowa Corn 350.
Next up, NASCAR tackles Richmond Raceway with action from the Craftsman Truck Series and Cup Series this weekend while the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series enjoys two weeks off before rejoining the action at Daytona. For Richmond this weekend, the Truck Series gets the action started tonight (Friday) with the Black's Tire 250 at 7:30 p.m. EST on FS1. The Cup Series takes the green flag tomorrow night (Saturday) with the Cook Out 400 at 7 p.m. EST on USA.
Richmond Picks: Trucks = Ty Majeski
NOAPS = OFF
Cup = Denny Hamlin
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