Ryan Blaney dominates Xfinity Series at Iowa

Ryan Blaney dominated the U.S. Cellular 250 in the Xfinity Series at Iowa Speedway on Saturday evening, leading 252 of 260 laps through two green-white-checkered attempts around the 7/8-mile oval in another strong performance for the #22 Team Penske Ford. Blaney was only passed during caution laps by the JR Motorsports Chevrolets of Regan Smith (#7) and Chase Elliott (#9). Smith hit his brakes too hard during a pit stop on the second caution and spun the #54 Toyota of Erik Jones. The #6 Roush Ford of Darrell Wallace Jr. also got some damage. Meanwhile, Elliott tangled with the #33 Chevrolet of Brandon Jones late in the race.

The first green-white-checkered attempt was prompted by a wreck involving Darrell Wallace and his teammate Chris Buescher (#60). Kenny Wallace, making his final start in any NASCAR series in the Joe Gibbs #20 Toyota as a teammate to Erik Jones and polesitter Daniel Suarez (#18), also got spun in that incident. On the restart, Brendan Gaughan (#62) got loose trying to get around Blaney and got passed by his RCR teammates Brian Scott (#2) and Ty Dillon (#3) as well as Erik Jones. Brennan Poole then spun his #42 Chevrolet to set up the final restart, which saw Smith pull away from the other leaders and follow Blaney to the checkered flag. After the race, Roush driver Ryan Reed (#16) pushed Ross Chastain (#4) on pit road, and Buescher and Darrell Wallace also had a few words. The next three Xfinity Series races are all on road courses - Watkins Glen in New York state, Mid-Ohio near Columbus, Ohio and Road America in Wisconsin.

Race Results:

1. (2) 22-Ryan Blaney - Ford - 260 laps, led 252 laps
2. (9) 7-Regan Smith - Chevrolet - 260 laps, led 4 laps
3. (11) 2-Brian Scott - Chevrolet - 260 laps
4. (10) 3-Ty Dillon - Chevrolet - 260 laps
5. (3) 62-Brendan Gaughan - Chevrolet - 260 laps
6. (1) 18-Daniel Suarez - Toyota - 260 laps
7. (5) 54-Erik Jones - Toyota - 260 laps
8. (15) 1-Elliott Sadler - Ford - 260 laps
9. (12) 9-Chase Elliott - Chevrolet - 260 laps, led 3 laps
10. (18) 4-Ross Chastain - Chevrolet - 260 laps