NASCAR teams toil with tire wear and partial repave in return to Iowa

NEWTON, Iowa — In NASCAR’s grand return to Iowa Speedway, teams are toiling with high tire wear from a repave that left some drivers perplexed.

“They barely got it done in time I think for the test. I mean it was pretty quick. I know the winters are harsh up here. And obviously other racetracks that we have up in the north are kind of the same way. I don’t know the for sure reasons why they had to do it, but hopefully it races good,” Ricky Stenhouse Jr. said.

Stenhouse is a three-time Xfinity Series winner at Iowa Speedway. Like other drivers, he wanted to come back to the track in a Cup Series car and race on the old surface.

And he will. But only on the straightaways. Crews applied new pavement to the lower grooves in the turns, akin to what Pocono Raceway was like years ago.

“When they had that strip there, we searched for it really quick,” Stenhouse said. “So that will be interesting to kind of see. I feel like once you’re committed to the bottom lane here, I don’t see you really kind of switching lanes. You might come across on exit a little bit, but hopefully it gets wide.”

Chase Elliott believed the groove could widen.

“I do think the second lane will be decent at some point, but it will definitely need to be worked in. It kind of has that fresh repaved shine to it that is not very inviting to want to go run on. But in the race, you’ll certainly be forced to run higher and I think that’ll end up working it in,” Elliott said. I wouldn’t be super surprised if that ended up being the preferred lane at some point in the race.”

By the end of the NASCAR Xfinity Series race Saturday, that is exactly what happened. On several late-race restarts, the top three drivers chose the outside lane. Drivers learned passes were tougher on the inside lane by the end of the race.

Drivers also learned that tire wear was a major factor. Jeb Burton blew a right-front tire entering turn one on lap 73. Austin Hill also blew a tire entering turn one on lap 218.

The focus point was the exit of turn four. That was where Christopher Bell blew a right-front tire in Cup Series practice Friday.

Three drivers in the Xfinity Series race had that exact issue.

• AJ Allmendinger, right-front tire, turn four exit, lap 35

“We started building tight but it wasn’t out of the realm of being tighter. I ran the bottom and got tighter. Then I ran the top and found speed until I wrecked.”

• Jesse Love: Right-front tire, turn four exit, lap 150

“Racing sprint cars prepared me for a hit like that.”

• Justin Allgaier: Right-front tire, turn four exit, lap 203

“The fans here at Iowa Speedway, they really show up. I just hope we can do something for them to fix the tire wear issues.”

Even being in the race, Austin Hill took note of this after he wrecked out.

“I know there’s something going on. I don’t want to lay blame on Goodyear. It could be the teams being aggressive. We could’ve run over something. We had issues with the left-front (blistering) all day,” Hill said.

Tyler Reddick pointed out that this weekend is different than Bristol. At Bristol, they had practice and qualifying in one day and the race the next day. Whereas Iowa Speedway saw practice Friday, qualifying Saturday and the race Sunday.

“Our issue could be air pressure-related, it could be a number of things. Because we practiced today, and then going through tech tomorrow, there’s a lot of things we can do to the car. Whereas at Bristol, you’re kind of boxed in,” Reddick said.

A Sunday night race is a blessing for some crew members who may come to the track sleepless, mulling over the five incidents in the Xfinity Series race on top of the multiple incidents in practice the day before.

Denny Hamlin will likely come well-rested. Hamlin won at Bristol and he said he’s ready if tire wear is extensive Sunday.

“Even in the test, they had high (tire) wear, but they ran 50-some laps on the tires before they really had high wear. Surprising to see they had as high wear as they did with just 20 laps or so on tires. But I think that’ll get better in the race. But if there’s havoc with tires and wear, I like our chances,” Hamlin said.

The NASCAR Cup Series returns to action with the Iowa Corn 350 set to go green at 7 p.m. ET Sunday.

MORE: NASCAR at Iowa Speedway 2024: Odds, TV times, lineups and more info

Joseph Eigo contributed to this report.