Blaney Dominates Inaugural ‘Cup Series Race at Iowa Speedway

From TC Daily Pit Stop

NEWTON, Iowa — Defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney has returned to Victory Lane for the first time in nearly eight months, holding off William Byron to take home the trophy in the inaugural Iowa Corn 350 at Iowa Speedway.

The 30-year-old driver had an exceptionally strong car throughout the afternoon in Newton, Iowa on Sunday, leading a staggering 200 of 350 laps, putting together a new personal best of laps led during a single NASCAR Cup Series event.

After leading much of the early portion of Sunday’s 350-lap contest, Blaney returned to the lead with 88 laps to go, courtesy of a two-tire strategy call by crew chief Jonathan Hassler, which got him the track position necessary to hold the race lead.

William Byron and Chase Elliott finished second and third, after unsuccessfully mounting a late-race charge on eventual race-winner Ryan Blaney. Christopher Bell rebounded to fourth, with Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. rounding out the top-five.

New Surface At Walla Walla

When racers return to Walla Walla Drag Strip June 22-23 for the Napa Points Series races 7 and 8, they will have a new surface on which to race.

Workers do track prep at the starting line.

Workers spent time during the time when the track was not running to scrape the entire 660-foot surface of the eighth-mile strip. Next job was putting down new rubber.

The track view from the tractor that helps put down new rubber.

Kelyn Dominates For Second Consecutive Win

HERMISTON, Oregon — It couldn’t have been much better for Quincey, Washington teen, Kasey Kleyn at the fourth race of the 2024 Northwest Super Late Model Racing Series in Hermiston, Oregon, June 15.

The 15-year-old current series points leader was top qualifier for the IBEW 112, was fastest in both practice sessions. He qualified on top but where it counted the most Kleyn led all 112 laps and ran the fastest lap of the race to claim his second consecutive series race.

Writing on his Kleyn Racing Facebook page, Kleyn “Has the Hermiston Raceway curse off his back. This has been a track he’s struggled at for years and then came so close with podium finishes last year, but just couldn’t get that win.”

Kleyn earned a 2.7 second win over Zach Riehl and was nearly six seconds ahead of Ashton Cristiani as the checkered flag waved to conclude a race run in windy conditions. Ken Bonney and Christopher Kalsch rounded out the top-5 finishers -- all on the lead lap — in the 14-car field.

Kleyn heaped big praise on his crew chief Trevor Cristiani who has been bringing him fast cars that are set-up and ready to go each weekend. This allows them to work on fine tuning the car and Kleyn to work on driving when they show up to the track.

“We can’t thank Trevor enough, along with the rest of the crew, Brent Harris, Troy Furman, and Ray Keys, for all of their hard work and dedication to this team,” Kleyn said.

Kleyn won May 18 at Stateline Speedway and now is the only NWSLM driver with multiple wins in 2024. He will shoot for three in a row on June 29 at the new Motorplex at the Mill in Emmett, Idaho near Boise.

Kasey Kleyn in the winner’s circle for the IBEW 112, June 15 at Hermiston, Oregon.

Truex, Jr. Confirms Plans to Retire Following 2024 Season

From TC Daily Pit Stop

AR Cup Series season will be his final as a full-time driver in the sport. The 43-year-old former NASCAR Cup Series champion made the announcement in an emotional press conference on Friday afternoon at Iowa Speedway.

Truex, a 34-time NASCAR Cup Series race-winning driver, has been full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series since the 2006 season.

He won the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series championship in an impressive eight-win season with the now-defunct Furniture Row Racing team and moved to Joe Gibbs Racing in 2019 after FRR shut down.

Truex says while he will no longer race full-time in NASCAR that he will remain an ambassador for the Joe Gibbs Racing team, and he didn’t rule out running part-time for the team in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

Up In Smoke!

Spokane’s Frankie Volz Jr. made the long trek to Meridian Speedway near Boise only to have his supermodified entry blow a motor and fail to make the field for that track’s Diamond Cup.

“This weekend we had a good racecar, fourth fastest Thursdays practice,” Volz wrote in Facebook Messenger. “Unfortunately, we broke a motor and didn’t get a chance to race.”

Undaunted, he’s putting “a new bullet (motor) in” and going to Shasta Speedway in Anderson California, July 27.

“Supermodifieds are back on the west coast,” Volz said. “Super exciting, they’re my favorite race cars,” he added.