Ryan Blaney Wins the U.S. Cellular 250 at Iowa Speedway
Ryan Blaney celebrates in victory lane at Iowa Speedway after leading for 252 laps. (photo by Oskaloosa News)
Fans celebrate the end of a phenomenal race season with frontstretch Pork ‘n’ Jam
NEWTON, Iowa (August 1, 2015) – Last Saturday afternoon, Ryan Blaney was hanging his head and down on himself after losing the NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the final lap to Kyle Busch.
Not so much tonight at Iowa Speedway. The 2012 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series winner at Iowa Speedway led a track-record 252 laps. Blaney, whose bobble on the final lap in Indianapolis cost him the win, cruised past pole-sitter Daniel Suarez on the opening lap in a dominant performance.
But the end wasn’t as easy as the beginning. Blaney had to withstand four furious restarts in the final 25 laps as championship contenders Chase Elliott, Chris Buescher and Darrell Wallace Jr. were involved in separate incidents.
“That was tough. I won a Truck race a few years back all on restarts and I didn’t know if it was going to play out good,” Blaney said. “I can’t thank everybody on this Discount Tire Ford Mustang. They put together a flawless car.”
This was the third consecutive August win at Iowa Speedway for the No. 22 Team Penske Ford. Brad Keselowski raced to Casey’s General Stores Victory Lane in 2013 and 2014.
Fifty-one-year-old Kenny Wallace, the career XFINITY Series starts leader with 547, finished 15th in the last race of his NASCAR career. Wallace ends his XFINITY career after 26 seasons with 10 poles and 173 top-10 finishes, good for seventh-most in the series.
“Obviously, I’m not going to be upset over a hard-earned, 15th-place finish,” said Wallace. “You know, it was just a deal where it looked like we were going to close in on a good finish, but as normal short track racing, the horns came out at the very end.”
Thousands of fans culminated the evening by joining the Pork ‘n” Jam on the race track’s frontstretch following the event. Country music star Tim Dugger headlined the NASCAR-style celebration immediately after the checkered flag waved.
While tonight’s U.S. Cellular 250 presented by New Holland closes out the 2015 season of NASCAR racing at Iowa Speedway, the NASCAR XFINITY Series heads to Watkins Glen next Saturday. When the snow and ice melt next spring, Iowa Speedway will celebrate 10 years of racing.
