The NASCAR Xfinity Series continues to see a new look in victory lane this season and is on track to match or exceed a record for number of different winners.
There have been 12 winners in the first 13 races. Monster Energy Cup driver Brad Keselowski, the only repeat winner so far. The series record is 18 different winners in a season set back 1988 and 2017.
Only three 2018 race champs are entered in Sunday’s NXS Iowa 250 at Iowa Speedway – Justin Allgaier (Dover), Christopher Bell (Richmond) and Tyler Reddick (Daytona).
There is precedence for the track to crown a first-time winner. Both William Byron and Ryan Preece picked up their career first Xfinity wins at Iowa last year.
NCWTS: Sauter Just Keeps On Winning
Johnny Sauter’s victory at Texas last weekend was his fourth in the first eight races of the 2018 season and his fifth win on the Texas Motor Speedway 1.5-mile high banks.
Going back to the 2017 season, Sauter has won six of the past 11 races and amazingly finished in the top-three, in 10 of those. Only three drivers in history have recorded four or more wins through the opening eight races – Kyle Busch and Mike Skinner.
The 40-year old Sauter has yet to win at Iowa Speedway, where the series races Saturday in the M&M’s 200. He has a pair of runner-up finishes including 2017 – his seventh top-five at the track.
WDUN will carry live MRN Radio coverage of Sunday's NASCAR Xfinity Series Iowa 250 from Iowa Speedway at 4:30 pm on 102.9 FM, AM 550 and streaming live on AccessWDUN.
NASCAR Weekend Preview
NASCAR Xfinity Series
Next Race: Iowa 250
The Place: Iowa Speedway
The Date: Sunday, June 17
The Time: 5 p.m. ET
TV: FS1
Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Distance: 218.75 miles (250 laps); Stage 1 (Ends on lap 60),
Stage 2 (Ends on lap 120), Final Stage (Ends on lap 250)
What to Watch For: Veteran Elliott Sadler continues to lead the points standings, however the JR Motorsports driver finished outside the top-10 for the first time this season last Saturday at Michigan. .. Elliott leads Cole Custer by 41 points and Daniel Hemric by 45 points. … Good news for Elliott is that he is the series all-time best at Iowa in earning pole positions (three), top-fives (seven) and top-10s (13). … GMS Racing driver Justin Haley, 19, and Joe Gibbs Racing driver Riley Herbst, 24, will be making their series debuts at Iowa. … Austin Cindric and Kaz Grala will be making their track debuts this week. Grala led laps last week at Michigan and put in a dramatic 12th-place finish and after leading laps (five) for the first time in the series. He is making the final of his scheduled four starts with the Fury Race Cars team and hoping runs like he had at Michigan will convince a company to back the team farther into the schedule. … Tyler Reddick leads Christopher Bell by 17-points in the Sunoco Rookie of the Year contest. … Keselowski won the first ever Xfinity Series race at Iowa in 2009. He and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. lead all drivers with three wins each.
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
Next Race: M&M’s 200
The Place: Iowa Speedway
The Date: Saturday, June 16
The Time: 7 p.m. ET
TV: FS1
Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Distance: 175 miles (200 laps); Stage 1 (Ends on lap 60),
Stage 2 (Ends on lap 120), Final Stage (Ends on lap 200)
What to Watch For: Johnny Sauter’s four wins this season have given him a commanding lead on the field. Noah Gragson is 77 points behind and Iowa native Brett Moffitt is 95 back. … Two-time series champ Matt Crafton is still looking for his first season victory. He has won at least once every year since 2012. He is currently fifth in the points. … Last week’s runner-up, Canadian Stewart Friesen will be making his Iowa Speedway debut. … Rookie Todd Gilliland, 18, led a career best 62 laps en route to his sixth-place finish at Texas last weekend. He had only led one lap in his career prior to that. … John Hunter Nemechek is the defending winner of the race. … Fifteen of the 35 drivers entered this weekend will be making their track debut.
