NEWTON, Iowa — Ryan Blaney led a career-high 201 laps to win the inaugural NASCAR Cup race at Iowa Speedway in front of a sold-out crowd that included 85 friends and family.
The victory is Blaney’s first of the season and 11th of his career. He led the final 88 laps in the 350-lap race.
MORE: Iowa race results
MORE: Iowa driver Cup points
“What a cool way to win here,” Blaney said. “This place means a lot to me and means a lot to my mom. We had a lot of people here tonight cheering us on, so they willed us to that one. Overall, I really appreciate the whole 12 boys. I mean, our car was really fast all night and we got a little bit better through the night and two tires was a good call there. I didn’t know how well I was gonna hold on. I started to struggle a little bit at the end, but had enough to hang on.
Willian Byron finished second for his 10th top 10 of the season. Chase Elliott placed third for his seventh top-five of the year. That allowed him to take the points lead.
Christopher Bell finished fourth in a backup car after crashing in practice Friday. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. completed the top five.
The race changed when Kyle Larson, who had won the second stage and had one of the strongest cars, was stuck three-wide at the start of the final stage. Daniel Suarez came up the track and hit Larson in the left, sending it into the SAFER barrier on the frontstretch on Lap 220. Larson finished 34th. Larson lost the points lead to Elliott.
“It’s hard to say how the rest of the race is going to play out,” Larson said. “No doubt I run top four. I felt like by far we had the best car. I feel like that one got away from us. Wish I could have that restart back.”
Larson, who won last week at Sonoma, had given up the lead earlier in the race when he thought he had a tire going down but didn’t. He also had an incident with Denny Hamlin when Hamlin hit in the rear and sent him up the track, leading Larson to later wonder on the radio what Hamlin was doing.
Stage 1 winner: Ryan Blaney
Stage 2 winner: Kyle Larson
Who had a good race: Ryan Blaney scored his first win of the season, coming two weeks after he was headed for a victory at World Wide Technology Raceway and ran out of fuel coming to the white flag. ... Chase Elliott’s third-place finish continues his strong run this year. He has seven top fives in the last 11 races. ... Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s fifth-place finish broke a streak of six consecutive races without a top-15 result.
Who had a bad race: Kyle Busch suffered a mechanical issue and finished 35th. He’s failed to score a top 10 in the last five races. He entered the race eight points from the playoff cutline and is now 31 points back. ... AJ Allmendinger finished last after a right front tire went down and crashed. It was the same thing that happened to him in the Xfinity race Saturday.
Next: The series races next on June 23 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET on USA Network)
